# 8074
According to well respected anthropologist and researcher George Armelagos of Emory University, we are entering The Third Epidemiological Transition, which began in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and is hallmarked by newly emerging infectious diseases, re-emerging diseases carried over from the 2nd transition two hundred years ago, and a rise in antimicrobial resistant pathogens.
Over the past three decades, dozens of new – mostly zoonotic – diseases have been identified. Some have already had a major impact on humans (e.g. HIV, Lyme, XDR-TB), while others remain marginal threats, but may have tremendous potential for greater damage in the future.
Which is why we pay so much attention to avian and swine flu viruses, emerging bat coronaviruses, and vector-borne diseases like Chikungunya, Dengue, CCHF, Nipah and SFTS.
With an increasingly mobile global population now numbered over 7 billion, huge increases in the number of animals being raised for food consumption (often in environments conducive to the spread of diseases), and man’s continual encroachment into remote jungles and forests of the world - you have a huge potential to introduce new `exotic’ diseases to mankind.
Today the FAO has released a new 130 page report that calls for new, holistic approaches in dealing with animal disease threats, and warns that humanity faces increasing threats from zoonotic diseases.
Read the report
World Livestock 2013 (.pdf version)
3 minute Audio Interview with FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth
For some more background on this report, the FAO published the following news story.
Surge in diseases of animal origin necessitates new approach to health - report
Focus on root causes and prevention needed
A poultry farm in Chad.
16 December 2013, Rome - Population growth, agricultural expansion, and the rise of globe-spanning food supply chains have dramatically altered how diseases emerge, jump species boundaries, and spread, according to an FAO report released today. A new, more holistic approach to managing disease threats at the animal-human-environment interface is needed, it argues.
Seventy percent of the new diseases that have emerged in humans over recent decades are of animal origin and, in part, directly related to the human quest for more animal-sourced food, according to the report, World Livestock 2013: Changing Disease Landscapes.
The ongoing expansion of agricultural lands into wild areas, coupled with a worldwide boom in livestock production, means that "livestock and wildlife are more in contact with each other, and we ourselves are more in contact with animals than ever before," said Ren Wang, FAO Assistant Director-General for Agriculture and Consumer Protection.
"What this means is that we cannot deal with human health, animal health, and ecosystem health in isolation from each other - we have to look at them together, and address the drivers of disease emergence, persistence and spread, rather than simply fighting back against diseases after they emerge," he added.
Multiple impacts of disease
FAO's new report provides a number of compelling reasons for taking a new tack on disease emergence.
Developing countries face a staggering burden of human, zoonotic and livestock diseases, it says, creating a major impediment to development and food safety. Recurrent epidemics in livestock affect food security, livelihoods, and national and local economies in poor and rich countries alike.Meanwhile, food safety hazards and antibiotic resistance are on the increase worldwide.
Globalization and climate change are redistributing pathogens, vectors, and hosts, and pandemic risks to humans caused by pathogens of animal origin present a major concern.
While the next pandemic could come from a wild bird in Asia, or the bushmeat trade out of Africa (see Bushmeat,`Wild Flavor’ & EIDs), the odds favor it coming from a commercial farm somewhere in the world where large numbers of animals intermingle, swap viruses, and come in daily contact with humans.
For a closer look at the risks of raising livestock, I heartily recommend Dr. Michael Greger’s free online book Bird Flu: A Virus Of Our Own Hatching, and Helen Branswell’s terrific piece in SciAm from late 2010 called Flu Factories.
Vast oceans and artificial geopolitical borders are no longer protection against the spread of diseases in our modern, interconnected world.
Which is why much more attention must be paid to global surveillance, international cooperation, and the immediate reporting of human and zoonotic disease outbreaks.
