The corona pandemic is already behind us, but we have not forgotten how one small virus jump from animal to human can cause so much misery. And that could happen again. In fact, the bio-industry only increases that chance.
Intensive livestock farming is often praised – especially by the sector itself – as a method to reduce the risk of zoonosis by increasing control and separating livestock from other animals. But a new study shows something quite different. The consequences of agricultural intensification for the likelihood of a new pandemic are “uncertain at best and the risk is increasing at worst,” the researchers say.
Farms are not isolated
For the first time, they have looked at the influence of social and economic factors, which have often been overlooked until now. Lead researcher Professor Steve Hinchliffe of the British University of Exeter explains: “The COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled interest in infectious diseases and especially zoonotic viruses. The risks of virus emergence and transmission depend on multiple factors, including human-animal contact and land use. Livestock farming plays a potential role because farm animals are, among other things, hosts of a virus and can serve as sources or amplifiers of emerging pathogens.”
The myth of intensive livestock farming
According to the professor, diseases are always more than just a matter of virus transmission, human-animal contact and contamination. “The fundamental myth of intensive livestock farming is that we separate livestock from wild animals and thus eliminate the risk of disease transmission. But these farms exist in the real world – buildings and fences can be damaged, wild animals such as rats or birds can enter, and workers also move around. In short, accidents can always happen. Once these kinds of factors are taken into account, the pandemic risk from intensive livestock farming is worrying,” the scientist says.
And it’s only getting worse. The expansion of intensive livestock farming and the resulting environmental pollution can further increase the risk of disease outbreaks. This intensification also leads to a “mixed landscape” with a variety of agricultural activities, which increases the risk.
Separate activities
The idea is that agricultural businesses keep their activities separate from the outside world, precisely to prevent these kinds of problems. But many farmers find the costs high and in Europe, for example, many farms are old and expensive to maintain, while in the US they are often open-air structures where nets have to do their protective work. In subtropical regions, the protection is weighed against the need to prevent overheating of animals. In short, almost everywhere in the world there are reasons why it is difficult for farms to create a biologically closed environment.
Strong lobby
The close ties between large agricultural companies and national authorities also prevent these issues from being addressed. And even then, that is not enough. Co-researcher Kin Wing (Ray) Chan emphasizes: “Improving biosecurity on farms and standardizing farm animal production are not the solution to achieving a disease-free environment. Rather, we need to look at socio-cultural factors in the intensification of livestock production and the impacts on the planet, the environment and animal welfare.”
Stop the bio-industry
We have known for a long time that many animal diseases are caused by intensive livestock farming. Think of swine fever, Q fever and bird flu. Many millions of animals had to be killed for this reason and people also became ill from, for example, the bacteria that causes Q fever.
You would almost think that it would be a good idea to stop the factory farming industry, preferably before a new pandemic ravages the world.