So, avian flu is back. To be honest, it never really went away. It dominated the news in 2005 when 140 million birds were reported to have died or been killed because of the outbreak, but the current strain has actually been around since 1996. But on Monday 27th January 2025, there was a confirmed case of a farm worker having been infected; evidence that such infections can, and do, jump from species to species.
Infections like these are called ‘zoonotic’, meaning they can make the jump from non-human animals to people. And the reason why they are concerning, or should be, is because they account for 60% of infections in humans. In fact, the UN has stated that 75% of emerging (or new) infections in humans originate from other animals, with livestock providing the bridge between them and us. In simple terms, people are in danger from infections from other species, and we’re making the situation far worse by farming and using animals.
What’s most alarming is that we’re still reeling from the effects of another zoonotic disease whose effects were so far spread, that it resulted in a devastating pandemic; COVID-19. The evidence shows that it’s very likely that COVID-19 originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China. For those who don’t know what this means, a wet market is one which sells fresh meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, but they also often sell live animals for human consumption. And it’s this farming, selling and eating of animals that keeps landing us in hot water. Outbreaks of disease from zoonotic origins really aren’t that rare or unusual. I’ve already mentioned that this current strain of Avian flu has been around for almost 20 years, with multiple previous outbreaks including that significant one in 2005, but there was also a Swine flu pandemic in 2009 which came from the mixing of a combination of viruses from Bird, Swine and human flu. Scary, right? And whilst viral infections with colloquial names like Swine or Bird flu might make it apparent that the infection came from animals, we also need to consider that other really devastating outbreaks also had zoonotic origins, such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2002 and Ebola in 2014.
What really strikes me, however, is that in all the news reports of these outbreaks and leaps of infection from animals to humans, mainstream media never acknowledges the underlying problem; that we are creating the conditions for these infections to thrive and negatively impact human health. Sure, they mention that farms or animal processing plants are being affected. And they might say that animals have been put on lock-down, or even culled (often in devastatingly high numbers). But I’ve never read a mainstream news story where a journalist has been honest about the cause and questioned whether things really need to be this way.
And, guess what? They don’t need to be this way. Intensive farming has created such unnatural situations for both the animals caught up in the industrial farming system, but also for the people who work within them, that the security of human health is just teetering on a knife-edge. Chickens are so highly genetically modified to yield maximum profit, that they have lost the genetic diversity that once protected them from infections. Add to this the over-crowded surroundings in which they’re bred and grown on an industrial scale, and of course infections are going to thrive. Further complicating matters is the fact that farmed animals are treated with antibiotics, partly to prevent these infections, but also because it helps to promote the growth of animals destined for the dinner plate. It’s a recipe for disaster. Outside of the farming system are additional factors which increase the risk of zoonosis; global warming, in which we’re seeing increasing temperatures that are perfect for infections to thrive and the clearance of forests, which usually act as a barrier between humans and animals. And the main culprit behind deforestation and global warming? Yep, you guessed it, it’s animal agriculture.
Instead of news stories describing how measures from avoiding wild birds, to disinfecting footwear and clothing after exposure, can be used to prevent Avian flu, how about we all start questioning how we’ve landed ourselves in this situation, where the health of all of humanity is so fragile that a virus which jumped from an exploited animal awaiting its dreadful fate in a wet market could result in the death of over 7 million people, globally? And when the incidence of zoonotic infections is rising, isn’t it about time we start talking about how we really prevent such diseases?
Of course I’m going to say that to prevent them we all need to go vegan. In my view, it’s the answer to so many problems. But the UN isn’t far behind my estimation of the situation. They have recommended a move towards a more plant-based diet for both the sake of the planet, and to solve world hunger. We should also consider the EAT-Lancet report; a global commission of scientists set out to plan how to feed a future population of 10 billion people in a sustainable and healthy way, and also concluded that a plant-based diet is where we need to be headed for if we’re going to achieve improved human health, halt climate change, and ensure food security for everybody.
What none of these arguments for plant-based eating consider, however, is the 1.2 billion animals killed every year for food. And that’s just in the UK. Worldwide, we’re looking at about 80 billion animals killed every year. That’s ten times the world’s human population. To be frank, it’s gross. Especially when we know that humans are omnivorous and can thrive on a plant-based diet. Not to mention the myriad protein alternatives which are now available, which offer much cleaner, sustainable protein sources. When we consider that the human consumption of other species is making us unwell, destroying the planet, and pushing billions of animals into a cruel system of breeding, farming and slaughter, the only ethical choice is to go vegan.