Climate change and infectious livestock diseases: The case of Rift Valley fever and tick-borne diseases

Climate change influences the occurrence and transmission of a wide range of livestock diseases through multiple pathways. Diseases caused by pathogens that spent part of their life cycle outside the host (e.g. in vectors or the environment) are more sensitive in this regard, compared to those caused by obligate pathogens. This book chapter uses two well-studied vector-borne diseases—Rift Valley fever and tick-borne diseases—as case studies to describe direct pathways through which climate change influences infectious disease-risk in East and southern Africa.