Origins of a pandemic
The 1997 H5N1 bird flu was traced to chicken factories in China. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Aleksandra Sagan
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A researcher releases a bat after taking a blood sample for coronavirus research at Sai Yok National Park in Thailand in August 2020. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Early cases of COVID-19 were linked to markets in China where wild animals were sold. Pangolins and bats have been identified as possible sources of infection, neither of which is on the shopping lists of the average global consumer. The deeper roots of this pandemic, however, are more complicated.
Many earlier viruses have originated in the animal husbandry industrial production chain.
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In the 1980s the United Kingdom’s cattle production began to see outbreaks of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and its human equivalent variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.
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In 1997, the bird flu (H5N1) was traced to chicken factories in China.
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In 2009, the swine flu (H1N1) originated in pig farms in Mexico and North Carolina in the United States.
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More recently, a possible new strain of COVID-19 has been found in farms in Denmark, where mink are raised for fur coats.
It is clear that the origins of these pandemics are not restricted to certain countries or certain practices, such as “wet-markets.” For some researchers, including Swedish chief physician and infectious diseases professor Björn Olsen, stemming rising demand for meat and dairy is a necessary part of reducing our risk for pandemics.
Olsen, who is well known for being an early critic of his government’s COVID-19 response, is now becoming known for another early warning — one he has been making in books and articles for nearly 10 years now. In a recent interview in Swedish, Olsen notes that pandemic viruses have all arisen where animals and humans meet, and raising billions of animals as food will have effects.
Consider all this in reverse: not a single pandemic in human history has been traced to plants.
While strengthening regulatory and monitoring capacity is an important part of an effective policy strategy, when societies replace animal sources of food with plant-based foods, they also reduce the risk of future pandemics. Olsen worries the link between the rising demand for animal protein and pandemics is not getting enough attention from politicians.