Animal agriculture requires a balance of maintaining the health and biological requirements of the animal and meeting economic needs to maintain farm viability. This balance is critical for the interactions between producers, animal scientists, and veterinarians, but is also increasingly a focus of those who consume animal products. Inadequate breeding, housing, nutrition, etc. may lead to production diseases, impacting animal welfare and resulting in negative economic impacts for producers and consumers.

The ICPD was held for the first time in 1968 in Urbana, Illinois, and has been held every 3^rd year since then, either in Europe or in the U.S. In contrast to the narrow species focus of most conferences related to farm animals, the ICPD focuses on production diseases and their prevention across ruminants, swine, and poultry. The ICPD has been primarily organized by animal and veterinary scientists, with the primary objective to gather different fields of science to exchange and discuss developments resulting in novel ideas to prevent production diseases, improve animal welfare, enhance product quality, and improve the sustainability of animal agriculture. 

The ICPD has always attracted international scientists from a variety of disciplines. In this unique interdisciplinary environment, cutting-edge research from scientists is focused on answering the questions and addressing the experiences and perspectives of practitioners, producers, and consumers.

Each ICPD is focused around the most current issues of farm animal production.

Conference topics:

Animal/Pathogenic Environment Interactions \ Fetal Programming \ Heat Stress and Disease Mechanisms \ Immunity and Immunometabolism \ Locomotion Disorders \  Microbiome and Health \ Nutrition/Reproduction Interactions \ Nutritional Diseases \ Precision Livestock Framing Methods for Animal Health and Welfare \ Prudent Antibiotic Use \ Virology in Health and Disease