Covid-like pandemic could easily start in US from meat supply: Report | world news

[ad_1]

The next global pandemic could start in the United States, according to a report from Harvard Law School and New York University. Even though Americans think “it couldn’t happen here,” the regulations are so loose that a virus could easily jump from animals to humans, triggering a deadly epidemic, the researchers found.

An illustration of the new coronavirus seen next to a healthcare worker at a Covid-19 testing centre. {{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}} {{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}}

“There really is this false sense of security and this unfounded belief that zoonotic disease is something that happens elsewhere. In fact, I think we are more vulnerable than ever in many ways,” said Ann Linder, one of the report’s lead authors. The report also highlighted several areas of vulnerability, including commercial farms where millions of head of cattle come into close contact with each other and their handlers. Other areas of possible transmission could be the wildlife trade in which animals are imported with few sanitary controls and the fur trade in which mink and other animals are raised.

“Thanks to globalization, we have erased seas and mountains and other natural frontiers of disease,” Linder said, adding, “We are mixing animals and pathogens on different continents and circulating at a dizzying and ever-increasing rate.”

{{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}} {{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}}

About 220 million live wild animals are imported into the United States each year for pets and other purposes, Linder said, explaining that if someone wants to bring a dog or cat into the country, there’s a process, “but if I’m a wildlife importer and I want to bring 100 wild mammals from South America, I can do that with very little regulation of any kind.”

Responding to the study, Ashley Peterson, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the National Chicken Council, said, “According to the CDC, the likelihood of avian disease spreading to a human in the United States is extremely rare.”

Pig and poultry farm workers are particularly vulnerable, due to the lack of regulations protecting them, said Delcianna Winders, associate professor of law and director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School in Royalton.

{{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}} {{^userSubrated}} {{/userSubrated}}

There are virtually no regulations on keeping animals on farms. Slaughterhouse regulations are limited, but extremely inadequate and the situation is getting worse. Currently, the federal government is deregulating culling rather than increasing oversight, Delcianna Winders said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When not reading, this former literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question “What is the purpose of journalism in society?”…see details

[ad_2]