Critical Reviews in Microbiology Article Points to Factory Farming’s Role in Emerging Human Diseases

An article written by The Humane Society of the United States' expert in avian influenza was recently published in Critical Reviews in Microbiology, a prestigious scientific journal which showcased his work highlighting factory farming practices as a primary cause of several infectious diseases that pose great threats to public health.

In his article, Dr. Michael Greger, The HSUS' director of public health and animal agriculture and author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, details how factory farming has created the conditions ripe for the emergence of infectious diseases, including highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that a lethal strain of avian influenza could potentially trigger a pandemic resulting in millions of deaths in the United States alone.

"The overcrowded confinement, immunity-crippling stress, lack of adequate ventilation and sunlight and grossly unhygienic conditions may turn factory farms into breeding grounds for disease," Dr. Greger said. "Factory farms are a public health menace."

Entitled, "The Human/Animal Interface: Emergence and Resurgence of Zoonotic Infectious Diseases," the article was published in the fourth-quarter issue in the peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Facts:

• The possibility of an influenza pandemic triggered by a bird flu virus such as H5N1 is considered the greatest threat to global public health. The strain has killed about 200 people and 200 million birds since its emergence a decade ago.

• Worldwide, 55 billion chickens are raised and killed every year. Spread wing to wing, the number of chickens killed every day would wrap more than twice around the equator.

Timeline:

• October 2007 — The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes a review recommending Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.

• September 2007 — An editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health advocates radical changes in the way animals are raised for food to prevent a flu pandemic and other emerging human diseases.

• June 2007 — A Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations  report suggests that the industrialization of animal agriculture in recent decades is increasing public health risks on a global scale.

• November 2003 — The American Public Health Association passes a " Precautionary Moratorium on New Concentrated Animal Feed Operations "  that urges all federal, state, and local authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the building of new factory farms out of concern for the health of workers and local communities, given the land, air, and water pollution associated with these industrial facilities.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—on the web at humanesociety.org.