 Pests and diseases can
spread rapidly, regardless of national boundaries,
with periodic outbreaks that can have disastrous
consequences for crops, forests and livestock. The most
dangerous plant pests are locusts and other types of
grasshopper, armyworm and birds. The desert locust poses a
recurrent threat to agriculture throughout Africa north of
the equator, the Near East and Southwest Asia. Epidemics of
contagious livestock diseases, such as rinderpest and
foot-and-mouth disease, bring sickness and death to animals
and disrupt trade between countries.
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