Volume 45 Issue 3 (September 2024) 439 REVIEW ARTICLE Agricultural Reviews, Volume 45 Issue 3: 439-447 (September 2024) Impact of Covid 19 Outbreak on Livestock Production: A Review Ogechi Evangeline Kadurumba 1 , Amalachi Kenechukwu Ibe-Ojiludu 1 , Linda Chidimma Ikpamezie 1 , Vivian Chinenye Anyanwu 1 , Chukwuemeka Kadurumba 2 10.18805/ag.RF-307 ABSTRACT For centuries, disease outbreak has posed a threat to livestock production. Corona virus disease, also known as COVID-19 is a novel disease that brought with it economic havoc and affected the livestock industry adversely. Animal Production and processing plants were heavily affected as a result of difficulty buying production inputs such as feed for animals, transportation of live animals including inter border crossing restrictions, assess to professional care, reduced workforce and decrease in supply of meat and meat products to the market. With the pandemic, importation and exportation of animals and livestock products were affected. There was reduction in the number of animals slaughtered daily and also a reduction in processing plant capacity across all species. Majority of workers in the livestock industry were infected with corona virus, which resulted to financial instability, loss of jobs as well as loss of animals. Better policies to reduce the economic loss through partial or full opening of both intra and interstate borders, providing funds to farmers, opening up processing plants and slaughtering houses will aid in cushioning the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livestock industry. Key words: Animal, Corona virus, Disease, Pandemic. Corona virus also known as COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel corona virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; initially called 2019-nCoV), identified firstly in Wuhan city, Hubei Province in China (NCIRD, 2020) as a respiratory illness called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV). The first human case of Covid-19 was reported in December 1, 2019 and reported to World Health Organisation (WHO) on 31 st December, 2019, by January 31, WHO declared Covid- 19 a Pandemic (PAHO, 2020; Ramzy and McNiel, 2020). According to clinicians, the disease is suspected to be caused by a virus- induced pneumonia due to its clinical symptoms and other criteria such as high fever, decrease in the number of lymphocytes and white blood cells (though sometimes normal), pulmonary infiltrates on the chest and no obvious improvement with antibiotics for three days (Zhou et al., 2020). About 213 countries and territories have been infected globally (Mansi, 2021) with over 50 million death cases have been recorded (CDC, 2020). It is said to be a zoonotic virus, bats serving as carriers (Mansi, 2021). It is a contagious disease as it is being spread from person to person through respiratory droplets, close contacts with persons, surfaces or objects tainted by the virus (Ramesh et al., 2020). Restrictions in travel and halt in trade were introduced by countries to limit the spread of the virus and subsequently, major economic sectors such as tourisms, entertainment, sports and the agricultural sectors were adversely affected. Agricultural sector which serves as a backbone to food security, source of livelihood and nutrition was threatened globally by Covid-19 (Senthilvelan and Sugantha, 2023; Goel et al., 2021). Movement restrictions and lockdown policies by the government affected local and national food production heavily as farmers could not access their farms leading to inadequate/unavailability of raw food items because cultivation and harvesting of food was reduced. Lockdown interstate closure of borders affected movement of food products from farms and local companies to the market (Gulsia, 2024). Origin and spread of COVID 19 COVID 19 has been reported to have originated from animals. Bats are known as the natural hosts of Alpha (α) and Beta (β) coronavirus, while livestock such as; pigs, chicken and cows are the natural hosts of Gamma () and Delta () coronavirus (Velavan et al., 2020). The mutation ability of the coronaviruses upsurges their rate of 1 Department of Animal Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri Imo State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: Ogechi Evangeline Kadurumba, Department of Animal Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri Imo State, Nigeria. Email: kadurumbaoe@gmail.com How to cite this article: Kadurumba, O.E., Ibe-Ojiludu, A.K., Ikpamezie, L.C., Anyanwu, V.C. and Kadurumba, C. (2024). Impact of Covid 19 Outbreak on Livestock Production: A Review. Agricultural Reviews. 45(3): 439-447. doi: 10.18805/ag.RF-307. Submitted: 13-12-2023 Accepted: 17-06-2024 Online: 31-07-2024