Strengthening Livestock Vaccine Distribution and Cold-Chain Preparedness in the United States: A One Health Imperative

The U.S. livestock industry, including cattle, pigs, chickens and numerous other species, is among the largest and most strategic elements of the nation's food system. Repeated instances of contagious livestock diseases such as FMD and HPAI have shown how they can disrupt markets, sever international trade agreements and produce a cascade of negative impacts on public health. Vaccines are universally accepted as a core component of disease prevention and emergency response, but for vaccines to be effective, they must be reliably distributed. This manuscript will provide a comprehensive review of all aspects of livestock vaccine delivery in the US such as the multi-layered, state-federal-private structure of vaccine delivery, persistent challenges in maintaining cold-chains to protect vaccines, geographic and workforce disparities that create inequality in emergency preparedness, new technologies and policies being developed to improve the delivery of vaccines and the broader One Health goals that position the preparedness of vaccines for animals as a national public health issue. Utilizing reports from the literature, assessment of agencies at the federal level and case study examples based on data collected during field-level observations, this report provides an extensive list of specific, actionable policy and research recommendations to address the gap between the potential use of a vaccine stockpile and the ability to deliver those vaccines to where they are needed in the field.