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Egg-laying hens at an organic poultry farm in Corcoue-sur-Logne, France, on April 13. These birds, which are usually allowed to roam outdoors, are under lockdown indoors as the government seeks to prevent the spread of avian flu. Photo: Reuters

Letters | Covid-19 and bird flu outbreaks should prompt a rethink of factory farming

  • Industrial farming and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources create the ideal scenario for disease outbreaks
  • The animal industry should be shrunk and better regulated, and we also need to rethink our habits related to meat consumption
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Much of the academic literature and healthcare guidelines published about Covid-19 focuses on how to handle the public health crisis and mitigate the consequences of the pandemic. More attention, however, should be paid to understanding the root causes of the coronavirus and other zoonoses – infectious diseases that can jump from animals to humans.

Epidemics caused by infectious diseases that originated from animals have plagued us throughout history. An “animal-human interface” – direct or indirect contact of humans with animals and their bodily fluids – is required for such cross-species transmission.

The animal-human interface has intensified in the last few decades due to several anthropogenic reasons. Intensified farming and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources create the ideal scenario for disease outbreaks.

In January, the French Ministry of Agriculture ordered the killing of millions of chickens, ducks and other poultry to halt the spread of the highly contagious H5N1 strain of bird flu which was first detected in November. By April, 13 million birds had been slaughtered. In the Netherlands, which also reported bird flu outbreaks, hundreds of thousands of birds have been killed.

Intensive factory farming is likely to have contributed to the spread of avian flu that Europe is struggling with. Wild birds may carry low-pathogenic variants, but the intensive farming environment facilitates the spread of viruses, which may then mutate into serious variants.

According to Our World in Data, the number of pigs slaughtered for meat increased by 34.5 per cent from 2000 to 2018, while that of chickens increased by almost 70 per cent. We will undoubtedly encounter other virus outbreaks or even more severe and unknown diseases if we continue with industrial farming.
Pets are also a potential source of infection, especially because they may interact with both wildlife and people. A Hong Kong study recently confirmed hamster-to-human transmission of the coronavirus related to a cluster of Delta cases. Around 2,000 hamsters imported from the Netherlands were culled.

Both domestic and wild animals play a vital role in sustainable human development, and humanity’s reliance on them has not ended – we just need to make sure it is evolving in the right direction.

Global sustainability is strongly linked to the risk mitigation and control of zoonoses. The animal industry should be shrunk and better regulated, and we also need to rethink our habits related to meat consumption. All practices involving rearing of animals and meat production should focus on health, not productivity.

Gabriela Scheibel Cassol, Sai Kung

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