Against a backdrop of increasing transboundary disease spread, Barbados’ top veterinary authority has issued a urgent call for the island nation to uphold robust monitoring, diagnostic testing, and biosecurity frameworks to safeguard both national food security and public health from invasive animal and foodborne pathogens. In an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Mark Trotman emphasized that the current absence of local outbreaks does not equate to the elimination of underlying risks, stressing that multiple dangerous diseases remain persistent, latent threats to the entire Caribbean region.
Foremost among these threats is African swine fever, a highly contagious and deadly viral disease that affects domestic and wild swine. Trotman noted that the virus has never been fully eradicated from the Caribbean since it was first detected in the Dominican Republic nearly a decade ago. “It remains entrenched in the region, retains full virulence, and spreads extremely easily between populations,” he explained. “We cannot afford to lower our guard against this hazard at any point.”
Trotman’s warning came during a regional workshop focused on rapid response protocols for African swine fever, held Tuesday at the Hilton Barbados Resort. The training event was coordinated by Barbados’ Ministry of Agriculture, in partnership with leading regional and international agricultural bodies including the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and drew public health and veterinary professionals from across the Caribbean basin.
Beyond African swine fever, Trotman named highly pathogenic avian influenza, more widely known as bird flu, as another ongoing, high-stakes threat. The disease has shifted from being primarily spread through international livestock trade to being carried by migratory wild birds, which pass through the Caribbean’s migratory corridors every single year as part of their seasonal travel routes. “This seasonal migration pattern creates a permanent risk that the virus will be introduced into Barbados’ domestic bird and poultry populations at any time,” Trotman said.
Two additional transboundary animal diseases—foot-and-mouth disease, which affects cloven-hoofed livestock, and screwworm disease, a parasitic infection that targets warm-blooded animals—also top the island’s watchlist. Trotman described the steady spread of screwworm through South America, Central America, and into parts of the southern United States as “deeply alarming” and a reminder of how quickly animal diseases can expand their geographic range.
Recent events in the United States further underscore the urgency of sustained preparedness, Trotman argued. Over the past 12 months, the U.S. has faced a string of widespread foodborne disease outbreaks linked to common pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter. These outbreaks have been traced to a wide range of food products, from leafy greens and fresh berries to raw milk cheeses, pre-packaged ready-to-eat pasta salads, and undercooked poultry. Several of these outbreaks have spread across multiple U.S. states, prompting nationwide product recalls and widespread public health alerts.
These incidents highlight a common public misconception, Trotman noted: many people fail to recognize that all food, particularly food of animal origin, carries inherent baseline risks that require active management. “A robust, continuously operating surveillance and testing system is non-negotiable to keep these risks under control,” he said.
However, Trotman also warned that maintaining these critical protective systems faces consistent challenges, most notably resource constraints. “It’s all too common for vigilance to slip when there are no active outbreaks,” he explained. “Budgets get cut, staffing levels are reduced, and workforce gaps go unfilled. These incremental weaknesses can erode biosecurity infrastructure over time, creating openings for pathogens to take hold and spark an outbreak.”
Even the most well-designed surveillance systems are not 100 percent foolproof, Trotman acknowledged, and outbreaks can still occur even with strong protections. But he stressed that the island nation’s single greatest defense against transboundary disease threats is sustained, unbroken vigilance, even when no local outbreaks are occurring. “We have to consistently maintain our biosecurity and monitoring mechanisms, even when it looks like there is no immediate danger. The threat is always present, lurking below the surface,” he said. “We can never afford to stop being alert.”
In closing, Trotman emphasized that as global travel and trade continue to create pathways for diseases to cross international borders, failures in biosecurity and regulatory oversight can carry severe, long-lasting consequences for food systems and public health. “Outbreaks almost always trace back to a break in the biosecurity or regulatory controls we have in place. The threat is constant, so our preparedness must be constant too.”