Original Article from "The Guardian".
German Article from "orf.at"
Man-made virus throwers
The "last" corona virus was not created by humans, but it was paved by human behavior - most of the science agrees. Destruction of natural habitats through deforestation and intensive agriculture, uncontrolled trade in wild animals, factory farming: all of these factors favor the development of pandemics - not only since Covid-19.
Humanity will be "at the end" if our food system cannot be changed, naturalist Jane Goodall warned a few days ago in the British "Guardian". "We have to ascribe this to ourselves because we have absolutely no respect for animals and the environment," said Goodall. "Our disrespect for wild animals and our disrespect for farm animals has meant that diseases can spread to people and infect them."
Science has long drawn attention to the fact that pandemics and epidemics are increasingly caused by animals, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls these diseases zoonoses.
Zoonoses are increasing
“According to the science magazine Nature, 60 percent of the newly emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, 70 percent of which are probably from wild animals. The recent SARS-CoV-1 epidemics, where bats spread to civet cats and then humans, and MERS-CoV, which was transmitted from camels to humans, and Ebola and HIV are all zoonotic diseases, ”wrote Eva Rosenberg, Head of Vier Pfoten Austria, in May in a guest commentary for the "Falter".
In the meantime it has been scientifically considered relatively certain that animals were also the original hosts of the new corona virus. The virus is believed to have spread to humans from bats - most likely at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China.
Stress comes from stressed animals
According to epidemiologists, animal-to-human transmission occurs especially when the animals are exposed to great stress. Interventions in their habitat, cutting down forests, catching and locking up live animals in small cages in markets, all this causes stress and favors the transfer of viruses from one species to another and finally to humans - more on this at science.ORF.at .
In a study published in April in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B", scientists scoured work for reports of diseases that passed from animals to humans. Data from the Red List for Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List) and data on around 140 known animal viruses, which due to their properties could also infect humans, were analyzed and correlated with one another.
Water bat
Science
Humans have paved the way for viruses
It showed that there are only a few wild animals that are threatened with extinction without human intervention and that they generally pose a very low risk of transmission of infectious diseases, the BBC quoted in April Christine Johnson, head of a project on pandemics at the University of California, Davis. Those wild animals, on the other hand, which are at risk due to human exploitation or loss of their habitat, would carry twice as many viruses that could cause diseases.
The call for curbing wildlife trade is growing louder. According to Johnson, much-visited markets where animals and people mingle, which would have little contact in nature, are ideal breeding grounds for diseases. The Compassion in World Farming campaign also advocates a worldwide ban on trade in wild animals in order to end their exploitation for traditional medicine, exotic pet farming, tourism and other purposes. Although trade in some endangered species is already prohibited, it is still widespread.
Industrial animal husbandry favors disease outbreaks
But it is by no means just wild animals that pose a threat to zoonoses. Domestic and farm animal species harbor a particularly large number of viruses, on average about eight times as much as wild animals. For example, up to 30 types of virus can be found in pigs and cattle. Often kept in a confined space and in close proximity to humans, farm animals are therefore a particularly large risk factor, the researchers at the University of California write.
The combination of intensive agriculture and epidemic outbreaks recently also shed light on the global investor network FAIRR - according to the Guardian, the study came to the conclusion that more than 70 percent of the largest meat, fish and milk producers were at risk of favoring future zoonoses: the safety standards are too low, the animals are kept too narrow and the use of antibiotics is excessive. "Factory farming is both prone to pandemics and to blame for it," said FAIRR founder Jeremy Coller. "It is a self-destructive cycle that destroys values and endangers life."
"Pandemics are not a question of whether, but when"
"The pandemic was only a matter of time," wrote four-paw boss Rosenberg. As a “milestone”, she rated a statement from EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius about a month ago: In an interview with the Reuters news agency, he said that “intensive livestock farming is playing a major role in the recent pandemic. There is also strong evidence that the way meat is produced, and not just in China, has contributed to Covid-19. ”Rosenberg sees this as a slow departure from what the EU has been practicing and promoting for decades Has.
The US scientist Michael Greger, who in 1993 was one of the first experts to point out the possible transferability of BSE to humans and recently published the book "How To Survive A Pandemic", summarized the problem: "Industrial animal husbandry is the safest Way to create pandemics. "And:" With pandemics, it is not a question of whether, but when and how. A global outbreak with a mortality rate of more than a few percent would not only threaten the financial markets but also civilization itself, as we know it."
Thank you for Reading.
German Article from "orf.at"
Man-made virus throwers
The "last" corona virus was not created by humans, but it was paved by human behavior - most of the science agrees. Destruction of natural habitats through deforestation and intensive agriculture, uncontrolled trade in wild animals, factory farming: all of these factors favor the development of pandemics - not only since Covid-19.
Humanity will be "at the end" if our food system cannot be changed, naturalist Jane Goodall warned a few days ago in the British "Guardian". "We have to ascribe this to ourselves because we have absolutely no respect for animals and the environment," said Goodall. "Our disrespect for wild animals and our disrespect for farm animals has meant that diseases can spread to people and infect them."
Science has long drawn attention to the fact that pandemics and epidemics are increasingly caused by animals, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls these diseases zoonoses.
Zoonoses are increasing
“According to the science magazine Nature, 60 percent of the newly emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, 70 percent of which are probably from wild animals. The recent SARS-CoV-1 epidemics, where bats spread to civet cats and then humans, and MERS-CoV, which was transmitted from camels to humans, and Ebola and HIV are all zoonotic diseases, ”wrote Eva Rosenberg, Head of Vier Pfoten Austria, in May in a guest commentary for the "Falter".
In the meantime it has been scientifically considered relatively certain that animals were also the original hosts of the new corona virus. The virus is believed to have spread to humans from bats - most likely at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China.
Stress comes from stressed animals
According to epidemiologists, animal-to-human transmission occurs especially when the animals are exposed to great stress. Interventions in their habitat, cutting down forests, catching and locking up live animals in small cages in markets, all this causes stress and favors the transfer of viruses from one species to another and finally to humans - more on this at science.ORF.at .
In a study published in April in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B", scientists scoured work for reports of diseases that passed from animals to humans. Data from the Red List for Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List) and data on around 140 known animal viruses, which due to their properties could also infect humans, were analyzed and correlated with one another.
Water bat
Science
Humans have paved the way for viruses
It showed that there are only a few wild animals that are threatened with extinction without human intervention and that they generally pose a very low risk of transmission of infectious diseases, the BBC quoted in April Christine Johnson, head of a project on pandemics at the University of California, Davis. Those wild animals, on the other hand, which are at risk due to human exploitation or loss of their habitat, would carry twice as many viruses that could cause diseases.
The call for curbing wildlife trade is growing louder. According to Johnson, much-visited markets where animals and people mingle, which would have little contact in nature, are ideal breeding grounds for diseases. The Compassion in World Farming campaign also advocates a worldwide ban on trade in wild animals in order to end their exploitation for traditional medicine, exotic pet farming, tourism and other purposes. Although trade in some endangered species is already prohibited, it is still widespread.
Industrial animal husbandry favors disease outbreaks
But it is by no means just wild animals that pose a threat to zoonoses. Domestic and farm animal species harbor a particularly large number of viruses, on average about eight times as much as wild animals. For example, up to 30 types of virus can be found in pigs and cattle. Often kept in a confined space and in close proximity to humans, farm animals are therefore a particularly large risk factor, the researchers at the University of California write.
The combination of intensive agriculture and epidemic outbreaks recently also shed light on the global investor network FAIRR - according to the Guardian, the study came to the conclusion that more than 70 percent of the largest meat, fish and milk producers were at risk of favoring future zoonoses: the safety standards are too low, the animals are kept too narrow and the use of antibiotics is excessive. "Factory farming is both prone to pandemics and to blame for it," said FAIRR founder Jeremy Coller. "It is a self-destructive cycle that destroys values and endangers life."
"Pandemics are not a question of whether, but when"
"The pandemic was only a matter of time," wrote four-paw boss Rosenberg. As a “milestone”, she rated a statement from EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius about a month ago: In an interview with the Reuters news agency, he said that “intensive livestock farming is playing a major role in the recent pandemic. There is also strong evidence that the way meat is produced, and not just in China, has contributed to Covid-19. ”Rosenberg sees this as a slow departure from what the EU has been practicing and promoting for decades Has.
The US scientist Michael Greger, who in 1993 was one of the first experts to point out the possible transferability of BSE to humans and recently published the book "How To Survive A Pandemic", summarized the problem: "Industrial animal husbandry is the safest Way to create pandemics. "And:" With pandemics, it is not a question of whether, but when and how. A global outbreak with a mortality rate of more than a few percent would not only threaten the financial markets but also civilization itself, as we know it."
Thank you for Reading.
