![]() ![]() Last year, 67 countries across five continents reported highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks, resulting in the loss of 131 million domestic poultry due to infection or culling. ![]() “Intensive farming has accelerated the circulation and mutation of the virus and continues to do so.” “The emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza is linked to the intensification of the poultry sector,” Beyer said. Four Paws has called the emergency of this avian influenza “alarming” and a “looming pandemic.” This intensification of factory farming is creating various public health concerns, setting the stage for the next global pandemic. “The avian influenza epidemic has reached unprecedented magnitude, killing millions of birds, threatening to wipe out endangered species, and now house cats are dying from the virus across different continents,” Wendla Beyer, Policy Coordinator at international animal welfare organization Four Paws, said in a statement. This system, which prioritizes high-yield animal production, rears billions of animals globally each year, who are kept in cramped conditions to optimize space, to boost the food industry’s productivity and profit margins. The landscape of farming has transformed dramatically over the years, moving from the traditional image of small, family-run farms to the emergence of industrialized animal agriculture, known as factory farming. Animal agriculture and the looming pandemic The spread of avian and swine influenza and their potential to cross over to humans is raising concerns about another global health crisis. Since 2009, the virus has been passed from humans to pigs approximately 370 times, leading to evolutionary changes in the virus that could increase its ability to infect humans. ![]() This strain is responsible for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (known as “pdm09”) between humans and pigs. Meanwhile, research from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service revealed a startling pattern of transmission of influenza A. These incidents led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the mutation as “rapidly evolving” and posing a risk to humans. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Official Veterinary Service confirmed two new outbreaks last month in Rio de Janeiro and the state of Paraná, which together make up 35 percent of the country’s poultry production. This incident followed a series of bird flu infections in mammals across various countries, including the diagnosis of five dogs and a cat in Italy, and in a coinciding incident in the United Kingdom, where 330 dead seagulls washed up on local beaches following the detection of bird flu at a nearby farm. The government is now conducting a national inspection of all animal food manufacturers. South Korean authorities identified that the source of the infection was contaminated cat food and ordered the manufacturer to recall and destroy all products. In South Korea, an avian influenza outbreak at a shelter in Seoul recently killed nearly 40 cats, marking the first detection of bird flu in cats in the region since 2016. Global health authorities are sounding the alarm over the potential for a “looming pandemic” following multiple outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian and swine influenza around the world. ![]()
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