photo by John Lambeth

COVID-19 disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, shares similarities with its predecessor SARS-CoV-1 which killed over 700 people worldwide beginning in 2002.

Both are coronaviruses and both are “zoonotic,” meaning they originate from animal viruses. SARS-CoV-2 is actually the third pathogenic novel coronavirus to emerge from animals over the past two decades.

According to the CDC, three out of every four emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.

Data from past pandemics suggest that if we are going to successfully avert future pandemic diseases, we must consider our risk factors as they relate to current industrialized food animal production.

From the 1918 H1N1 swine flu onward, every pandemic has originated from animals

The continued development of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), “mega-farms” and other industrialized operations with large concentrations of animals increases our pandemic risk.

Some dismiss SARS-CoV-2 as a “Chinese virus,” but animal agriculture around the world is so outsized and concentrated, breeding grounds for the next pandemic exist wherever animal agriculture exists.

Scientists now suspect that intermediate hosts are not necessary for zoonotic outbreaks. This means that mixing wild, disparate animals together is no longer a necessary precursor to a pandemic.

Photo by Wolfgang Mennel

In other words, outbreaks like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can happen on western-style livestock farms.

Outbreaks aren’t limited to wild animal markets in Asia; they ignite from western animal farms too

In fact, the 2009 H1N1 Swine flu originated in North America, and German officials just yesterday reported a case of H5N8 avian “bird flu” in Saxony. So, outbreaks are not limited to exotic and mixed animal Asian markets. Superbugs can emerge just about anywhere.

Connie Spence, founder of VJL and Agriculture Fairness Alliance (AFA) suggests that focusing on these wet-markets is diverting us from the real problem: western animal ag production.

Wet markets are a deflection cop out for agri-viruses. The sales or lack of sales of bats, civets and pangolins who get coronaviruses, don’t affect the mega agri-industry or government’s GDP. Wet markets with wild animals closing down also don’t affect the mega-agri-industry or a government’s GDP. So they are easy scapegoats, like telling people to take fewer showers instead of eating fewer burgers type of thing. Pigs, who get multiple coronaviruses…and the sales (or lack of sales) do affect agri-industry and Governments, and so will never ever make it into the conversation. So it’s up to us to force this conversation. Repeat with me…pigs get coronaviruses. -Connie Spence, Founder VJL

So long as intensively farmed livestock populations exist, humans are at risk

Although the risk of introducing pathogens from farmed animals to the environment can be reduced, zero risk of introduction is virtually impossible as long as intensively farmed livestock populations exist, even in highly developed countries.

The primary reason for this risk is that high throughputs and concentrations of animal populations create a breeding ground for diseases which in turn greatly increases the intensity of microbial exposures for farmers, their families, farmworkers, veterinarians, and others in contact with these operations. Even with tighter regulation of occupational conditions or worker exposures, in most high-density animal houses, there remain many opportunities for both worker infection and transfer to others in the community.

The United States subsidies factory farms, the very places

where future pandemic pathogens are developing right now!

When animals are kept in close quarters, viruses and deadly bacteria are given the opportunity to rapidly mutate, proliferate, and jump into human populations

The exchange of pathogens among confined food animals, wild animals, humans, and the environment is well studied. Some significant findings from the research include:

Poultry and swine houses are ventilated with high-volume fans that result in considerable movements of materials into the external environment.

Animal waste contains a range of pathogens, including influenza viruses, which can persist for extended periods of time in the absence of specific treatment.

Workers involved in removing the wastes from animal houses, transporting wastes, and spreading wastes on land are at high risk of exposure to pathogens through inhalation, dermal contact, and hand-to-mouth transfer. These workers are often undocumented and untrained in handling animal waste. They rarely raise issues about their working conditions due to fear of retaliation and deportation.

So, if concentrated animal farming operations are so utterly hazardous to humanity, why on earth is our government showering this industry with tens of billions of tax-payer funded subsidy payments, year after year?

In order to eliminate these incubators of virulent pathogens, we can start by ending subsidies to factory farms.

Stopping the next pandemic before it starts requires the cessation of CAFOs and other industrialized operations with large animal populations. It needs to be done now. Agriculture Fairness Alliance – founded by the same people who brought you Vegan Justice League, aims to end animal ag subsidies, to end large scale factory farming, and is currently lobbying to help animal farmers transition to plant-farming.

It’s time to stop animalizing our proteins, and stop subsidizing big animal ag. It’s time to shift our food supply to center around plant-based proteins, and stop breeding, commodifying, and eating animals altogether. That’s how we’ll stop the next pandemic before it starts. Join AFA today.

Update 3/25/20: Corrected statement that the 1918 pandemic was the H1N1 swine flu. Some of the genomic segments have been shown to originate from avian ancestry.

Sources:

Further Reading

Coronavirus Should Make You Reconsider Eating Meat

– Sentient Media

Senator Booker is Right About Factory Farming

-National Review

Judie Mancuso, founder of Social Compassion in Legislation, and VJL ally, observed in her recent press release, Labels do not save lives, let’s discuss the real issue: the wildlife trade and animal agriculture :