Veterinary Infectious Diseases Commons^™

New Approach To Health And The Environment To Avoid Future Pandemics, Serge Morand

Animal Sentience

This commentary expands Wiebers & Feigin’s target article by pinpointing how declining wildlife, expanding livestock and globalisation contribute to the increase in epidemics of zoonotic diseases, the COVID-19 crisis and future health crises. Epidemics and the emergence of zoonoses are manifestations of dysfunctional links with animals, both wild and domestic, requiring a new approach to health and the environment.

Remedying Anthropogenic Zoonoses, Daniela Figueroa, Ximena Duprat

Animal Sentience

Abstract: Zoonotic diseases represent 60% of the infections suffered by the human species. in light of the latest episodes of epidemics and pandemics we have to begin to address health problems with another perspective. The “One Health” vision aims to generate a change in consciousness and a new working strategy.

What The Covid-19 Crisis Is Telling Humanity, David Wiebers, Valery Feigin

Animal Sentience

The planet is in a global health emergency exacting enormous medical and economic tolls. It is imperative for us as a society and species to focus and reflect deeply upon what this and other related human health crises are telling us about our role in these increasingly frequent events and about what we can do to prevent them in the future.

Cause: It is human behavior that is responsible for the vast majority of zoonotic diseases that jump the species barrier from animals to humans: (1) hunting, capture, and sale of wild animals for human consumption, particularly in live-animal markets; …

China's Lack Of Animal Welfare Legislation Increases The Risk Of Further Pandemics, Amanda Whitfort

Animal Sentience

Legislation enforcing positive animal welfare standards provides an important buffer against the spread of disease when other safeguards to promote animal health have failed. The continuing absence of animal welfare legislation in China increases the risk of future pandemics, like COVID-19, and puts animal health, and consequently public health in danger.

An Hsi Fact Sheet: Avian Influenza In India, Humane Society International

HSI FACT SHEETS

Avian influenza (AI), commonly known as bird flu, typically causes little or no harm to its wild waterfowl hosts. In 2003-2004, however, nine Asian countries reported unprecedented outbreaks of high-mortality AI in domestic poultry. This viral lineage, subtype H5N1, has spread to over 60 countries, and is considered endemic in at least four.

In India, H5N1 outbreaks were first recorded in 2006, and have continued each year since, reaching a total of 86 by 2012. Millions of India’s chickens and ducks have been culled in efforts to contain and eliminate the virus. India has declared itself free of AI a …

An Hsi Report: Industrial Farm Animal Production And Livestock Associated Mrsa (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), Humane Society International

HSI REPORTS

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bacterial infection and is increasingly found to be resistant to antibiotic therapy. A newly described type of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus carried by farm animals, Livestock Associated MRSA (LA-MRSA), is now causing infections in humans with and without direct livestock contact. A reduction in the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in feed would likely reduce the capacity of industrial animal agriculture to continue to create, disseminate, and perpetuate a large reservoir of LA-MRSA on a global scale, but more fundamental changes in the way animals are raised for food may be necessary forestall a …

An Hsus Report: Human Health Implications Of U.S. Live Bird Markets In The Spread Of Avian Influenza, The Humane Society Of The United States

Impact of Animal Agriculture

After millions of years of existing as a harmless infection of aquatic birds, some strains of avian flu have developed the ability to mutate into highly pathogenic forms that may not only be deadly for birds, but potentially more dangerous for humans as well. Experts from the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have joined leading scientists in implicating industrialized poultry production for providing fertile ground for the transformation of benign bird flu into highly pathogenic strains.

Live bird markets can be the conduit by which waterfowl …

Their Bugs Are Worse Than Their Bite: Emerging Infectious Disease And The Human-Animal Interface, Michael Greger

State of the Animals 2007

In the twenty-five years since that announcement, what we now know as AIDS has killed 20 million people (National AIDS Trust 2005). Where did the AIDS virus— and other emerging diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, mad cow— come from?

The Human/Animal Interface: Emergence And Resurgence Of Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Michael Greger

Transgenesis Collection

Emerging infectious diseases, most of which are considered zoonotic in origin, continue to exact a significant toll on society. The origins of major human infectious diseases are reviewed and the factors underlying disease emergence explored. Anthropogenic changes, largely in land use and agriculture, are implicated in the apparent increased frequency of emergence and reemergence of zoonoses in recent decades. Special emphasis is placed on the pathogen with likely the greatest zoonotic potential, influenzavirus A.

Farm Disease Crises In The United Kingdom: Lessons To Be Learned, Michael C. Appleby

State of the Animals 2003

Over the last fifteen years, a diverse succession of disease-related crises has befallen farm animal and food industries in the United Kingdom. Some have involved animal health, with little risk to humans. Some have involved human health, with animals acting as a reservoir for infection but little affected themselves. Some, however— including the most alarming— have involved both animal and human health through zoonoses, diseases transmittable from animal to human. All of these crises are linked in the public mind and in many commentaries, and indeed there are issues that many of them share. The most common of these is …