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- animal agriculture, omnivorous diets and environmental impacts
- background and reasoning for going vegan plus useful vegan resources and recipes
- animal ethics and worker conditions in animal farming
- research on plant-based nutrition and health
(links to media on pathogens below)
We can see below the dangers of farming and eating animals just from zoonotic diseases beside supporting the greatest damage to the environment, to health and animal suffering. A pandemic scenario very similar to that of Covid-19 was warned of in 2007. Without animal farming (especially industrial) and consumption of animal-products, pandemic outbreaks are highly unlikely to occur, or, if the highly plausible lab-leak theory is correct, highly dangerous gain of function research would have no excuse to be allowed to continue, and specifically the covid pandemic would have been prevented in this way. Meat markets / factory farms and even slaughterhouses are often infested with pathogens. Abnormal high density of infected animals, their transportation and contact with humans results in optimal pathogen-spreading and mutations. An additional dilemma is the high usage of antibiotics in industrial farms to fight pathogens, which is the main cause of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, considered as a major threat by WHO, potentially killing millions in the coming years.1 2 3 4 “Drug-resistant infections know no borders and do not respect barriers between industry, regulators and buyers, or between animals, humans and their wider environment”5
Spanish flu 1918 – wild birds to poultry farms to humans
https://www.nature.com/news/study-revives-bird-origin-for-1918-flu-pandemic-1.14723
or swine plus humans
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2014.14723
How Denmark significantly reduced its death-rate by cutting out meat, alcohol and reducing dairy herds by one third due to wartime shortages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikkel_Hindhede
(Note that meat consumption in industrialised countries was considerably less in the early 20th century, an era before intensive agriculture and factory farming. Therefore reduction of dairy herds by a third would mean minimal dairy intake and is therefore not comparable with 2022)
In Denmark the Spanish Influenza pandemic claimed just 0.2% of the population
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181023-the-places-that-escaped-the-spanish-flu
“Recent studies have, by comparing international mortality levels for 1918, noted that Denmark stands out as the country with the lowest levels of excess mortality [2,3].”
https://paa2008.princeton.edu/papers/81563
17% death rate reduction from non-epidemic causes 1917 and 34% in 1918 (pandemic year)
SARS 2002 – bats/civet cat-eating/farming to humans
https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/sars/en/
swine flu 2009 – pig farms to humans
https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/information_h1n1_virus_qa.htm
swine flu origins in intensive pig farming
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/swine-flu-intensive-farming-caroline-lucas
Current threats and examples of continuous problem
Fur Farms and Covid-19 spread
Deadliest Avian Flu Outbreak In US History Kills Over 52 Million Birds
Bird flu
Human infectedvia cows in USA:
https://utopia.de/news/vogelgrippe-mann-steckt-sich-bei-infizierten-milchkuehen-an_669190/
“Der Biogeograf und Ornithologe Peter Petermann, der sich seit Jahren mit dem Thema beschäftigt, bezweifelt dagegen die Zugvogel-Hypothese. Viel naheliegender sei die Verbreitung über die Geflügelindustrie, argumentiert er. Die Möglichkeit der Verbreitung bei den Geflügeltransporten werde aber möglicherweise aus Rücksichtnahme auf den wichtigen Agrarwirtschaftszweig weitestgehend ausgeklammert, kritisiert Petermann auch an die Adresse des FLI. »Es wird zu wenig untersucht, wie die Ausbreitungswege in der Geflügelwirtschaft wirklich sind.«
Petermann sieht beispielsweise in Geflügeltransporten auf der Straße gefährliche Übertragungswege. Durch die notwendige Belüftung für die dicht gedrängt eingepferchten Tiere entstünden auch ideale Bedingungen für die Verbreitung von Viren über große Entfernungen. Auch am Straßenrand verstreute Federn aus den Transporten quer durch Europa seien ideale Wege zur Weiterverbreitung. Ein weiteres Problem entstehe, wenn ein Ausbruch nicht erkannt werde und die toten Hühner oder Puten im Zuge der Entsorgung beispielsweise zu Dünger oder Fischfutter weiterverarbeitet würden.”
– backyard chickens
Avian flu origins in animal-farming
“At least eight types of bird flu, all of which can kill humans, are circulating around the world’s factory farms – and they could be worse than Covid-19”
UK has more than 1000 mega-farms
“Cromie said that while improving biosecurity was the best short-term solution, the authorities should be looking at how these viruses originate in and are amplified by industrial meat production. Britain slaughters more than 1 billion chickens every year.”
Fatal strain of bird flu outbreak S.Carolina
General outbreak (in German)
African Swine Fever outbreak in Poland April 2020
Antibioticresistant bacteria in pig feces as fertiliser (German)
Die nächste Pandemie könnte aus dem Hühnerstall kommen
Christian Drosten, virologist at Berliner Charité (article in German)
„Der aktuelle Grund sollte jetzt sehr überzeugend sein, notwendige Veränderungen in Angriff zu nehmen. Das Problem ist der Fleischhunger in der sich ausweitenden Gesellschaft.“
“The current reason should now be very convincing to make the necessary changes. The problem is the desire for meat in an expanding society. ”
“Zudem warnte der Virologe angesichts der Tierhaltung weltweit vor weiteren Pandemien. Diese biete “ideale Bedingungen für ein Virus, um sich an den Menschen anzupassen”.
Darum dürfen wir nicht nur auf Asien und die Schleichkatzen zeigen oder auf die Kamele im Orient. Was wir hier mit den Schweinen machen, ist auch nicht gut.”
°Eine wachsende Menschheit mit wachsendem Fleischhunger berge das Risiko für künftige Pandemien, so Drosten.”
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/corona-drosten-interview-zeit-schulschliessungen-100.html
MERS (H1N1) 2012 – bats to camel farms to humans
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/5/140513-mers-saudi-camels-health-contagion-spillover-bats-disease/?fbclid=IwAR3OLavNP6fNht42PIupqvVbatIBKiM8YW-VEKeSsqDa8gcpshYbFOVlRUE
Covid-19 (“Coronavirus”) 2019 – bat-eating / pangolin farms
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00364-2?fbclid=IwAR3U8ebx6B5HBMXjrPq9W6HZJerxtCOroSqE1FMGykjBsZkkXLCdIZucWs4
“for a precursor virus … an animal host would probably have to have a high population density (for natural selection to be efficient)…”.
Spread via slaughterhouses?
“the single-biggest source of coronavirus cases in the U.S.”
Smithfield Hit With Lawsuit for Failing to Protect Pork Factory Workers From COVID-19
“Largest outbreak in Canada” (….”In the U.S., rates of coronavirus infection are 75 per cent higher in rural counties housing large beef, pork and poultry-processing plants”)
Outbreak in German slaughterhouse:300 cases (in German)
Rund 300 Mitarbeiter positiv Heftiger Corona-Ausbruch in Schlachthof
“Schlachthöfe und Fleischbetriebe entwickeln sich gerade zum Corona-Brennpunkt im ganzen Land”
“Löhne unter dem Mindestlohn, Massenunterkünfte, kaum Erholung für kranke Kollegen”
652 Infizierte
“Corona-Massenausbruch bei Tönnies: Hunderte infiziert – die Ansteckungsrate ist enorm – heftige Konsequenzen drohen”
bird flu – wild birds to poultry farms to humans
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260025#1
Spread of bird flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1
history
“While most wild birds have only a mild form of the H5N1 strain, once domesticated birds such as chickens or turkeys are infected, H5N1 can potentially become much more deadly because the birds are often in close contact. H5N1 is a large threat in Asia with infected poultry due to low hygiene conditions and close quarters. Although it is easy for humans to contract the infection from birds, human-to-human transmission is more difficult without prolonged contact. However, public health officials are concerned that strains of avian flu may mutate to become easily transmissible between humans.[18”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_influenza
HIV and Ebola from bushmeat hunting
Further Antibiotic Resistance Information
Antibiotic use in animal farming – EU comparison
Antibiotic resistance adds to the impact of Covid-19
Antibiotic resistance: the hidden threat lurking behind Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200401-coronavirus-why-death-and-mortality-rates-differ
https://www.aidian.eu/news/antimicrobial-resistance-amr-has-a-role-in-covid-19
Cardiovascular aspect of covid-19 (another reason for preventative approaches to heart disease)
The General Problem:
“The world is in an “era of pandemics” and unless the destruction of the natural world is halted they will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, kill more people and affect the global economy with more devastating impact than ever before”
‘We should start thinking about the next one’: Coronavirus is just the first of many pandemics to come, environmentalists warn
Coronavirus: Pandemics will be worse and more frequent unless we stop exploiting Earth and animals, top scientists warn
Coronavirus: Industrial animal farming has caused most new infectious diseases and risks more pandemics, experts warn
Go vegan or risk further pandemics, experts warn
Meat-eating creates risk of future pandemic that ‘would make Covid seem a dress rehearsal’, scientists warn
Pandemics over the last 200 years
German video summary
List of Zoonotic Diseases (before covid 19)
https://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/topics/zoonoses.htm
Other pathogens
Salmonella origins in animal-farming, animal manure
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/287/5450/50.full
e.coli origins in animal-farming, animal manure
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/e-coli
Anthrax origins in animal-farming
https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/resources/history/index.html
References
1. http://www.fao.org/3/a-bp285e.pdf
5. https://ec.europa.eu/health/amr/sites/amr/files/amr_studies_2015_am-in-agri-and-env.pdf
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