A £13 million UK-funded research programme has been launched to tackle damaging animal diseases.

British researchers said the projects aimed to help farmers and livestock owners in poor countries, whose animals acted as "walking bank accounts" and were crucial to their livelihoods.

But the research, funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Scottish Government, also provides "insurance" for the UK which can be affected by the same diseases.

With global trade and climate change, diseases such as foot-and-mouth, African swine fever, bluetongue and African horse sickness are an increasing threat to UK livestock, the researchers said.

Animal diseases such as avian flu were being spread along trade routes, while rising temperatures were allowing viruses spread by insects - such as bluetongue - moving north towards the UK.

Prof Jeff Waage, director of the London International Development Centre, said the primary purpose of the programme was to tackle diseases which placed an "enormous burden" on productivity and were a barrier to trade for livestock farmers.

But he also said work on tackling tropical and subtropical diseases, which the UK was likely to see far more of in the future, would give this country a "head start" when they arrived.

"Most of the diseases we're talking about will come our way in the future because of changes in global trade and changes in global climate," he said.

The programme will fund 16 new projects which will bring together researchers from the UK with institutions in countries including India, Tanzania and Uganda. The projects include work in Uganda to develop a new vaccine for the increasing problem of goat plague, as well as a test to check whether an animal has been vaccinated or has caught and survived the disease - which would affect whether it could be traded.

A scheme in Tanzania aims to map the genetic variation in foot-and-mouth viruses across the African country to help develop ways of controlling the disease, which is endemic in parts of the world and can have major impacts in the UK as recent outbreaks have shown.

Another project aims to develop a vaccine for liver fluke worms in India, where they have a serious impact on cattle and other animals and up to £3.1 billion in losses for farmers.

Prof Aaron Maule, of Queen's University Belfast, said liver fluke worms were on the rise in the UK, and were a common sight in British abattoirs. Work to tackle the tropical liver fluke worm provided a "win-win" situation as the fluke worm species which is increasing in the UK is biologically similar to the parasite found in India, he said. Many of the diseases livestock suffer from, such as liver fluke, are "zoonotic" - meaning they can spread to human beings with potential impacts on our health, the researchers added.

Livestock can provide key nutrients for childhood development and economic opportunities for women in the developing world and diseases can have an impact on the benefits the animals provide. Development Minister Mike Foster said: "Healthy animals can mean the difference between feeding a family or being plunged further into poverty and malnutrition.

"This new research will reduce poverty, increase animal welfare and ultimately improve the quality of life for some of the world's poorest people."