Meat consumption linked to COVID-19
A group of experts from the UN' Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute believe that increased demand for animal protein, along with unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change, may have accelerated the development and appearance of new diseases, including COVID-19. Zoonotic diseases - which jump from animals to humans - are increasing and will continue to do so without action to protect wildlife and preserve the environment, experts have warned. According to them, Ebola, West Nile virus and Sars are also all zoonotic diseases: they started in animals and made the jump to humans. "In the last century, we have seen at least six major outbreaks of novel coronaviruses. Over the last two decades and before Covid-19, zoonotic diseases caused economic damage of $100 billion,", warned Inger Andersen, undersecretary-general and executive director of the UN Environment Programme, quoted by BBC.
The current pandemic crisis is going to take a larger toll on the global economy over the next two years: $9,000 billion, considers Andersen. "We have intensified agriculture, expanded infrastructure and extracted resources at the expense of our wild spaces. Dams, irrigation and factory farms are linked to 25% of infectious diseases in humans. Travel, transport and food supply chains have erased borders and distances. Climate change has contributed to the spread of pathogens. The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead," she added.
Epidemiolgists have named bats as the most probable source of he current coronavirus pandemic.
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