Potentially Deadly Diseases With a Link to Meat Production
Potentially Deadly Diseases Linked to Meat Production
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that the first COVID-19 infections were linked to a live-animal market in China and that approximately 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans have come from other animals. Some of these include the following:
- Ebola: The CDC says, “Ebola is not spread by food. However, in Africa human infections have been associated with hunting, butchering, and processing meat from infected animals.“
- H1N1 Strain of Swine Flu: In an article in Wired, Brandon Keim wrote, “Scientists have traced the genetic lineage of the new H1N1 swine flu to a strain that emerged in 1998 in U.S. factory farms, where it spread and mutated at an alarming rate.” The CDC estimates that H1N1 swine flu killed up to 575,400 people worldwide during the first year in which the virus circulated.
- H5N1 Strain of Bird Flu: In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated, “Outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 are reported in poultry at farms and wet markets in Hong Kong.” WHO also noted, “When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%.”
- HIV: Stefan Lovgren in National Geographic wrote, “It is now widely accepted that humans contracted HIV from chimpanzees, probably by butchering them for bush meat.“
- SARS: Writing in USA Today, Matthew Brown observed, “SARS, discovered in 2003, originated at a wet market similar to the one now suspected to be the origin of COVID-19.” “Wet markets” sell live animals and meat, and they operate not just in China but also in India and around the world.
For more information, check out this video:
“I want the wild animal markets closed.” – Dr Ian Lipkin, infectious disease expert
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