The management of animal disease risks forms part of sustainable livestock production. There is a variety of different livestock production systems and each present different animal disease challenges. More intensive systems in which the animals are housed provide greater opportunities for preventing disease entering a herd or flock but higher stocking densities mean that disease, once it gains entry to a farm, may spread more rapidly. Good husbandry and management will help reduce the risk of entry but this risk cannot be eliminated. Sometimes disease will occur. This can happen in both intensive and extensive systems.
The risk of influenza has not been shown to be greater in either, although experience has shown that close contact between animals and man is an important factor in possible transmission to man.
Further, there is no evidence of a correlation between intensive farming and the frequency of influenza pandemics. Indeed, the frequency of influenza pandemics has not changed despite the intensification of livestock production in developed countries since the 1950s.