From a handful of cases in Wuhan, China to a global crisis in just a few months. Thanks
to COVID-19, nations around the world cancelled large events, implemented strict lockdowns,
and closed their borders. These measures have struggled to contain the virus and millions
have been infected. Many experts have warned that this reactionary approach to treating
pandemics is ineffective. As any doctor will tell you - prevention in better than cure.
So we need to ask ourselves what conditions allow diseases like this to emerge? and how we can
we prevent another pandemic arising in the future? COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease.
Meaning a disease that originated in animals and then made the leap to humans. If we examine
the history of infectious diseases, this origin isn’t surprising. It is believed
that the domestication of the camel led to the virus responsible for the common cold.
The domestication of chickens gave humans various strains of the flu. while tuberculosis
and measles likely emerged from cattle. More recent pandemics, like SARS in 2002, H5N1
in 2003 and MERS in 2012, can all be traced back to animals. Now COVID-19 is believed
to have originated in the wildlife trade. So why are animals so often the source of infectious
disease? Well, in epidemiology, the study of infectious
disease, animals are what is known as natural reservoirs. This means that infectious pathogens
naturally live and replicate inside them, often without causing any symptoms. Both wild
and domesticated species can be natural reservoirs.3 When we come into contact with infected animals,
we give the pathogens a perfect opportunity to make the leap to humans. And, put simply,
since our human immune system has never been introduced to these pathogens, it doesn't
know how to deal with them, so we get sick.
60% of known infectious diseases, and 75% of new emerging infectious diseases
are zoonotic in nature, i.e they are derived from the animal world
The way we farm, slaughter and hunt other species brings humans into close proximity with these
potential reservoirs of infectious disease. On factory farms for example, animals are
crammed indoors by their thousands, they are in constant stress, often living in filthy
conditions and consuming unnatural diets. This is where most of the world’s chicken
and pig meat comes from and these conditions are a hotbed of disease.
It's not just the sheer numbers, the overcrowding but the stress crippling their immune system
the ammonia from the decomposing waste burning their lungs, lack of fresh air, lack of sunlight
Put all these factors together and you have this super storm kind of environment
Despite stricbiosecurity measures, outbreaks still occur. In fact in 2013, an egg farm in Young NSW,
reported an outbreak of a highly infectious bird flu strain. Over 400,000 layer hens were
infected. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a virus already infecting millions across
the globe, scientists are warning that a new strain of highly infectious H1N1, or swine
flu, has infected workers on Chinese pig farms and has “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus”
We're always at risk of a human pandemic
but what will hit us next week or next month or in five years, that I don't know
During the COVID-19 crisis, slaughterhouses, and
meat processing facilities have seen a disproportionate number of infections. In Australia,
a Victorian slaughterhouse was linked to over 100 cases of the virus. In the United States
multiple meat packing plants we forced to close due to outbreaks, and in Germany, a
slaughterhouse saw more than 1,300 of it’s workers infected with COVID-19.
Staff in these facilities work in close proximity for long hours, which makes social distancing
difficult. The air conditioned, humid environment they work in, designed to keep meat from spoiling,
also helps infected droplets spread, settle and stay viable. 45 It's no wonder that these
workers are at high risk of contracting the disease.
And It’s not just affecting people, it’s important to remember that the animals themselves
are also victims of these pandemics. Outbreaks of influenza viruses have led to mass chicken
and pig culls, where hundreds of thousands of animals have lost their lives.67 In the
UK during the 1990 outbreak of BSE or mad cow disease, thousands of cows were killed
indiscriminately to prevent the spread of the disease.
It now seems likely that mass slaughtering and cattle burning will once again be seen in Britain
The last time was the foot and mouth epidemic of the 1960s
During COVID-19, slaughterhouse and processing plant closures in the US have created a backlog
of animals with nowhere to go, and so, to cut their losses, the meat industry culls them
The whole process is very industrialised so if anything goes wrong the animals tend to suffer
In this case it's cheaper for the farmers to kill the animals and put them in a mass grave than it would be for them to find another place for them to go
There is also strong evidence to suggest that the way we interact with the
natural world is contributing to the rise of infectious disease. The expansion of agriculture
and other human activities is causing widespread deforestation around the globe and as natural
habitat is destroyed, wild animals are being forced into closer and closer proximity with
humans.
This leads to more encounters between wildlife, humans and farmed animals, increasing the
risk of pathogens crossing over the species barrier. A 2019 study by USAID and EcoHealth
found that of all wildlife born diseases 31% have been related to some form of land use
change. This includes HIV, Ebola and Zika virus.9 In deforestation hotspots like the
Amazon and Malaysia, there is a direct link between land clearing and outbreaks of Malaria
The thing to understand about diseases like COVID-19 is that they do not emerge out of nowhere
They are not unpredictable events like earthquakes or asteroid hits instead they are predictable consequences
of the ever intensifying interaction among humans, animals and the natural world
So while the exact source of COVID-19 is
still to be determined, it’s clear the expansion of human activities further into the natural
world and our reliance on large scale intensive animal farming for food is contributing greatly
to an increased risk of new zoonotic pandemics. Given the failure of our governments
to effectively detect and treat these diseases it’s clear that prevention is better than
cure. To reduce the risk of another zoonotic disease becoming a global pandemic
we need to greatly increase the welfare of animals in our care and encourage consumers
to move away from consuming animals. We also need to urgently address deforestation and
the continued destruction of the natural world. Because in case after case we see that what
is good for animals, and good for the environment is also good for our own health.