The Ebola outbreak has now claimed more than 1,500 lives. While medical personnel and government officials try to cope with the strain put on existing health care systems, it’s time for us to look at how animal flesh affects the origin and spread of epidemics.
Some attention has been given to the African practice of eating fruit bats — a likely reservoir of Ebola — but the link between eating meat and infectious disease outbreaks is seldom articulated. In general, bushmeat carries a high risk of disease. Chimpanzee flesh is the probable source of HIV and AIDS, which has claimed the lives of 36 million people.
And the risk doesn’t end with bushmeat — live animal markets in China were the catalyst for SARS, H5N1 and numerous other viral outbreaks. The H1N1 influenza epidemic of 2009, which cost up to a half-million lives, traces its probable origin to North American pig farms. Cows carry E. coli, which costs the U.S. government more than $250 million annually. The government spends another $1.3 billion on bacterial infections originating in chickens.
We know that animals are the source of the majority of new and re-emerging diseases in humans. It’s time for us to stop eating animals before we encounter an outbreak that we cannot control. Rebecca Rose Researcher, Office of the President PETA
Norfolk, Va.