VN September 2020

Vetnuus | September 2020 6 Stronger biosecurity measures in the global food system could help prevent future pandemics, scientists say, as the rate at which diseases jump from animals to humans is increasing. Epidemiologists, ecologists, and veterinarians say zoonoses are emerging in part because of unsustainable agricultural practices aimed at meeting the demand for animal protein from growing populations. In the global South, meat production increased 260 per cent in the past 50 years, with milk production up 90 per cent and egg output up 340 per cent. “The best chance we have of effectively dealing with another coronavirus or similar infectious pathogen is at the beginning – when spill-over occurs – and by ensuring global coordination,” says Sophie Von Dobschuetz, global surveillance coordinator at the Food and Agriculture Organisation. “Most emerging diseases over the last century have come from intensive agriculture, not wet markets,” Delia Grace Randolph, a professor of food safety systems at the University of Greenwich and a contributing scientist at the Kenya-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), tells SciDev.Net. Wet markets sell fresh foods, as opposed to dry, packaged goods, and some sell live fish and animals. Randolph is the lead author of a new report published jointly by ILRI and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which notes that about 60 per cent of human infections are estimated to have an animal origin. Of the new and emerging human infectious diseases, about 75 per cent“jump species”from animals to people. Most zoonoses happen indirectly, through insects such as mosquitoes or, more commonly, through food systems. Meat hunger Randolph and co-authors say the“vast majority”of animals involved in zoonotic outbreaks are domestic livestock or pets – domesticated animal species share an average of 19 zoonotic viruses with people, while the average for wild animals is just 0.23 viruses, they say. As the global human population continues to surge, the number of domesticated animals that provide protein-hungry societies with food and the number of animals, such as rats, that thrive in such environments have also increased, the report says. Secure meat-hungry food systems to prevent the next pandemic Fatima Arkin, SciDevNet Photo: Sonjamariavienna, through Wikimedia