The globalisation of poultry supply chains: implications for food security and foodborne disease

The globalisation of poultry supply chains: implications for food security and foodborne disease | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The globalisation of poultry supply chains: implications for food security and foodborne disease Vaishnavi Ganesan, Selina Bruns, Gregory Messenger, Paul Wigley, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8821332/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Global poultry trade plays a critical role in contemporary food systems, underpinning food security by supplying affordable animal protein to a growing global population. At the same time, the increasing scale and connectivity of poultry supply chains create pathways for the transboundary dissemination of foodborne pathogens. Understanding how the structure of international poultry trade shapes both resilience and vulnerability is therefore essential for effective food safety governance. In this study, we characterise the global trade networks for fresh and chilled poultry meat over a 10 year period (2014–2022). Weighted, directed trade networks were constructed using data from the UN Comtrade database and analysed to assess community structure, connectivity, centralisation, and temporal stability. We further examined the relationship between network structure and food safety outcomes within the European trade community using notifications from the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). Detected trade communities were broadly aligned with regional economic trade blocs, particularly in the European Union, the Americas, and the Asia–Pacific regions, which all maintained extensive, primarily monodirectional, intercontinental linkages. Commodity networks exhibited diffuse ‘hub-and-spoke’ structure, indicating highly plastic regional networks which are dependent upon a small number of highly-connected nucleating countries. Detailed analysis of the European community identified a positive association between export volumes and food safety notifications, with several high-volume exporters emerging as disproportionate sources of reported foodborne disease risk. These findings suggest that while highly integrated poultry trade networks enhance food availability and market resilience they may also amplify systemic vulnerability to foodborne disease transmission centred around large exporting countries. Network analysis offers a valuable framework for identifying critical nodes, informing risk-based surveillance, and strengthening international food safety governance. Integrating trade network intelligence into global food safety initiatives, including regional and WHO-led surveillance frameworks, could support earlier detection of emerging risks while safeguarding food security in increasingly interconnected food systems. Agricultural Economics & Policy Food Security Food Safety Disease Surveillance Network Analysis Trade Policy Global Poultry Trade Supply Chain Risk Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files TheglobalisationofpoultrysupplychainsimplicationsforfoodsecurityandfoodbornediseaseSupplementary.pdf Supplementary Files Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8821332","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":587699304,"identity":"14129146-09e8-4b18-ac7d-22312353a7cb","order_by":0,"name":"Vaishnavi Ganesan","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vaishnavi","middleName":"","lastName":"Ganesan","suffix":""},{"id":587699305,"identity":"cf0ce025-ab61-4faa-94d9-7335d6697dfa","order_by":1,"name":"Selina Bruns","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-0107","institution":"Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Selina","middleName":"","lastName":"Bruns","suffix":""},{"id":587699306,"identity":"fa1fdcb5-52b8-4d7f-a5dd-421930a64c4e","order_by":2,"name":"Gregory Messenger","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0610-2919","institution":"University of Bristol Law School, University of Bristol, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gregory","middleName":"","lastName":"Messenger","suffix":""},{"id":587699307,"identity":"69809dc3-c103-4700-b0f4-c143339c4a4f","order_by":3,"name":"Paul Wigley","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6563-0773","institution":"Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Paul","middleName":"","lastName":"Wigley","suffix":""},{"id":587699308,"identity":"71e2a1e9-7ab1-4d0d-a178-f3b5fba4c0ad","order_by":4,"name":"Sion C. 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At the same time, the increasing scale and connectivity of poultry supply chains create pathways for the transboundary dissemination of foodborne pathogens. Understanding how the structure of international poultry trade shapes both resilience and vulnerability is therefore essential for effective food safety governance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this study, we characterise the global trade networks for fresh and chilled poultry meat over a 10 year period (2014–2022). Weighted, directed trade networks were constructed using data from the UN Comtrade database and analysed to assess community structure, connectivity, centralisation, and temporal stability. We further examined the relationship between network structure and food safety outcomes within the European trade community using notifications from the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDetected trade communities were broadly aligned with regional economic trade blocs, particularly in the European Union, the Americas, and the Asia–Pacific regions, which all \u0026nbsp;maintained extensive, primarily monodirectional, intercontinental linkages. Commodity networks exhibited diffuse ‘hub-and-spoke’ structure, indicating highly plastic regional networks which are dependent upon a small number of highly-connected nucleating countries. Detailed analysis of the European community identified a positive association between export volumes and food safety notifications, with several high-volume exporters emerging as disproportionate sources of reported foodborne disease risk.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese findings suggest that while highly integrated poultry trade networks enhance food availability and market resilience they may also amplify systemic vulnerability to foodborne disease transmission centred around large exporting countries. Network analysis offers a valuable framework for identifying critical nodes, informing risk-based surveillance, and strengthening international food safety governance. Integrating trade network intelligence into global food safety initiatives, including regional and WHO-led surveillance frameworks, could support earlier detection of emerging risks while safeguarding food security in increasingly interconnected food systems.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The globalisation of poultry supply chains: implications for food security and foodborne disease","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-10 06:06:26","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8821332/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"3d3bf5c8-fa5e-486e-9479-1f8ac36f230e","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 10th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":62527371,"name":"Agricultural Economics \u0026 Policy"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-10T06:06:27+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-10 06:06:26","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8821332","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8821332","identity":"rs-8821332","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}