Factory Farms – A Breeding Ground for Disease
The pandemic threat of animal agriculture
Deadly biological weapons are being developed all over the world right now – and they’re more destructive than any existing ones. But not a single government is prepared to try and stop them. There are thousands of laboratories involved and we can guarantee there’s one not far from your home. These laboratories are called factory farms and they produce over 80 per cent of all the meat we eat.
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Introduction
Factory farms provide the perfect breeding ground for disease. It’s the perfect setting for viruses and bacteria to mutate and spread.
Factory Farms – A Largescale Problem
Intensive agriculture is associated with more than a quarter of all infectious diseases and more than half of all zoonotic diseases.
Bird Flu – Waiting in the Wings
Avian influenza (bird flu) viruses are among the most dangerous viruses that can affect humans, with a case fatality rate ranging from around 30 to 60 per cent.
Swine Flu – Piggy in the Middle
Some researchers are even more worried about pigs than poultry because pigs are susceptible to infection with flu viruses from other pigs, humans and birds.
BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare and fatal condition that affects the brain. It causes brain damage that worsens rapidly over time. The unhealthy practice of feeding cows the remains of other dead cows and sheep was acknowledged as the probable cause of this fatal neurodegenerative disease.
Bovine TB – Badgers are not the Problem
Bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB or bTB) is an infectious zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. Badgers have been blamed as the primary reason for bTB spreading, the idea being that infected badgers spread the disease into dairy herds.
Nipah Virus – How Pig Farming Provided a Pathway for Disease
The 1998-1999 Malaysian outbreak of Nipah virus exemplifies how factory farming provides a pathway for disease to spread and develop into a lethal threat to human health
Covid-19, SARS and MERS – Driven by the Hunger for Meat
The coronavirus pandemic may have originated, it is thought, in a wet market rather than a factory farm, but the risk factors in such places are very similar.
Antibiotic Resistance – Superbugs on the Rise
We now rely heavily on antibiotics to treat and prevent infection but what many people don’t realise is that they are also widely used in agriculture and aquaculture. The overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant “superbugs.”
E. Coli and the Deadly Threat from 0157
It’s not just dangerous viruses lurking in factory farms, such places provide the perfect environment for pathogenic bacteria to spread and evolve too.
Staphylococcus Aureus and MRSA
As we are fast-approaching a post-antibiotic era, the effectiveness of antibiotics used to treat human illnesses may be reduced if pathogens and resistance genes from the agricultural environment are repeatedly, but silently, being introduced into the human population.
Salmonella – Are Eggs Really Safe?
Poultry, pigs and cows are a significant source of this food poisoning bug but they may show no signs of infection and infected foods usually look and smell normal. Factory farms provide the ideal environment for Salmonella bacteria to spread as they are shed in the faeces of infected animals.
Campylobacter – Top of the Food Poisoning Table
Campylobacter is the main cause of food poisoning in the UK and it is estimated that there are more than half a million cases and 80,000 GP consultations every year in the UK. Campylobacter bacteria are prevalent in farmed animals such as chickens, pigs, cattle and sheep, and have also been found in shellfish.
Final Warning
Most of the meat people eat today comes from genetically uniform, immunocompromised, regularly drugged animals packed by the thousands into filthy sheds or stacked cages. The perfect environment for emerging diseases.
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