HEALTH
Our Interaction with Animal Communities May Determine the Next Pandemic Environmental degradation and factory farming make future pandemics more likely BY MOHAMMAD ABDULLAH
J
ohns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 dashboard (https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/diagnostic-testing/testing-dashboard/) reports that the pandemic has killed more than 2 million people worldwide. Last December, the World Health Organization warned that it might not be the “big one” they have long feared and have repeatedly warned the world to prepare for (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/29/all). Scientists say as humans increasingly encroach on the habitats of wild animals, the likelihood of big epidemics rises. The key to preventing another pandemic, they say, is reducing the viruses’ animals-to-humans spillover risk. Animals have always had viruses coming through their bodies. More people are venturing into wild ecosystems and thus exposing themselves to new animal infections, and yet there is no effective global early detection and disease containment system. Deforestation and urbanization continue, as do global trade and the consumption of wild animals. Moreover, concentrated animal feeding operations make it easier for viruses to jump the species barriers and cause new zoonotic diseases. For instance, in 1998 Malaysia cleared rainforests for palm oil, lumber and livestock farms (https://news.mongabay.com/ July 30, 2013). Consequently, some of the displaced fruit bats ended up on new pig farms where mango and other fruit trees also grew. Their saliva and feces infected pigs with the Nipah virus, which sickened farmworkers and others living close by, killing hundreds of people in several outbreaks (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>books>NBK215318). Wet markets — popular in certain Asian countries — offer prime conditions for viral spillover, as they feature stressed animals stacked in cages with bodily fluids running down. A year or so ago, a mysterious pneumonia outbreak was initially thought to be SARS, a coronavirus disease that had emerged there in 2002 and had now returned through one such market in Wuhan, China. Actually, Covid-19 was a new disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a virus that infects and replicates in human cells. Like earlier pandemics and outbreaks, Covid-19 began inside an animal. Viruses, which only replicate inside living organisms, can adapt rapidly to a new host. Covid-19, thought to have originated in bats, probably could only infect humans via an intermediate host animal, thought to be pangolins. Further research is needed to confirm this theory. “Novel” diseases such as Covid-19, ones not previously seen in humans, trigger pandemics. Coronavirus is a family of viruses that causes zoonotic diseases. Corona means “crown,” due to the crown-like spikes on their surface. Most coronaviruses circulate among animals, including pigs and bats. Bats are hosts to many viruses such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, and Nipah, usually without any symptoms. Kaiser Health News said experts had long anticipated the pandemic. But a 20-year period of good luck with emerging pathogens — including SARS, the H1N1 (“swine flu”) pandemic, MERS, Ebola, Zika virus and two strains of bird flu — gave them a false sense of security (https://www.khn. org>news>article>many-us-health-experts-under...). The Guardian reported that 60% of all emerging diseases are now zoonotic; 80% of new pathogens come from the top pork-producing countries, such as China. 56 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MAY/JUNE 2021
Globally, more than 90% of livestock and poultry live in factory farms. Viruses may jump from animals to humans when people interact with them in new ways. It’s believed that the race to produce cheap pork led to the African swine fever by incorporating such practices as cutting the cost of feeding pigs. And now, according to the Guardian on Oct. 8, 2020, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to standardize pigs, much like fruit and vegetables, unaware of the unintended consequences (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/08/behind-chinas-pork-miracle-how-technology-is-transforming-rural-hog-farming).
A factory pig farm in Xingan County, east China’s Jiangxi Province (Peng Jianxin/Handout via Xinhua)
Pigs and birds are raised in factory farms. While most avian diseases aren’t transmissible to humans, they are more transmissible to pigs. Once they establish themselves in pigs, they are more likely to evolve and become able to infect humans (https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov>pmc>articles>PMC7120200). Historical data suggests that zoonotic influenza originated from influenza type A viruses circulating among birds, pigs and horses. Pigs have receptors, to which both avian and mammalian influenza viruses bind, which increases the potential for virus gene substitution to produce new re-assortants or novel viruses in pigs. Pigs are like a “mixing vessel” (www. who.int>default-source>searo>whe>). Generally speaking, there are two kinds of viruses: DNA and RNA viruses. Unlike the African swine fever, which has a DNA genome, coronaviruses have RNA genomes, which allow the virus to mutate and
