Det går ud over begge parter og sygdommene florerer med den stigende tilflytning til byerne og den voksende menneskehed – fugleinfluenzaen er blot et af flere faresignaler, gør forskere gældende i rundspørge fra FN-bureauet IRIN.
HONG KONG, 13 December 2013 (IRIN): With more than half of all human infections originating in animals, experts say a multi-sectoral, global response to zoonoses – diseases passing between animals and humans – is urgently needed.
IRIN talked to a panel of experts to learn just how deadly humans and animals can be to one another, and ultimately how each can save the other.
“By neglecting the health of animals and ecosystems, we fail to recognize that human health is inextricably linked (uløseligt forbundet) with animal and ecosystem health,” said Laura H. Kahn.
She is a physician and researcher at Princeton University in the US. Khan co-founded the One Health Initiative, which links human health to how well animals and the ecosystem fare.
1,7 million human death annually
With almost half of the some 1.000 pathogen species (sygdomsfremkaldere) found in livestock and animals kept as pets (kæledyr) able to cross over into humans, poor animal health undoubtedly increases the risk of poor human health, experts warn.
Known zoonoses cause an estimated 2,3 billion cases of sickness and 1,7 million human deaths annually, reported the Nairobi-headquartered International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2012.
But then there are the unknown viruses, which are estimated to number at least 320.000, according to calculations by Simon Anthony and co-researchers published in 2013.
Scientists say preventing and containing zoonoses requires
* improved human and animal health surveillance systems,
* food safety and biodiversity conservation and – equally difficult, if not more so –
* collaboration among biologists, veterinarians (dyrlæger) and doctors for people.
Changing world, changing risk
A good part of zoonoses (some 70 percent of which come from wildlife) are directly attributable to (henføres til) human actions that have vastly changed animal environments, decreasing animals’ resilience (modstandsdygtighed) against infection and boosting the risk of humans falling ill.
“Changes in farming and marketing systems have led to more and more pathogens present in society that human beings have never previously been exposed to,” Yi Guan, the medical doctor and virologist based in Hong Kong, told IRIN.
Guan first traced the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS = fugleinfluenza ) to live poultry markets in eastern China, told IRIN.
The planet’s population is expected to exceed nine billion people by 2050, leading to more pressure on environmental resources and food systems.
By that time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates global meat consumption per person will increase 27 percent (with most of that growth in China and Brazil).
“Urbanization is linked to the intensification of animal systems [in cities], leading to an increased risk of zoonosis,” said Fred Unger, a veterinary scientist with ILRI.
China as an example
From the 1960s until 2010, due to urbanization, especially in developing countries, FAO calculated the global consumption of milk doubled, while that of meat tripled and eggs grew fivefold.
These days, each city in eastern China hosts at least one dozen retailers selling different species of live poultry in open markets.
Birds taken from different regions of China to urban markets led to the outbreaks of SARS, H1N1 bird flu and the recently diagnosed bird flu strain H7N9, said Yi.
“There are direct impacts and consequences of the change in the farming and marketing systems. These also provide increased opportunities and chances for human and animal interaction”, said Yi.
While there are health benefits to moving animal husbandry (husdyrbrug) into cities and slums, there are also zoonotic pathogens brewing in the unhealthy physical conditions animals are kept in, increasing humans’ exposure to those pathogens.
But it is not just people casting a wary eye at animals; animals would be justified in being suspicious of us.
Decreased animal immunity
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/99323/analysis-stopping-disease-swaps-between-humans-and-animals
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http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/210621/icode
