Back in 2007, following the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak, veterinary epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews published The Chickens Fight Back: Pandemic Panics and Deadly Diseases that Jump from Animals to Humans. The book discussed zoonoses – diseases passed between humans and other animals.
This updated and renamed edition, rewritten during the 2020 global COVID-19 (SARS-COV) lockdown, further explores the conditions in which zoonotic diseases take hold, and suggests what will need addressing if we are to survive our “inter-pandemic” future.
“The living things on this planet,” Waltner-Toews explains, “are one big, dysfunctional extended family of species, in which most bacteria, viruses and parasites are beneficial and necessary, in which diseases have a useful role in nature, and in which we ourselves have evolved from microbes and are composed of them... In the twenty-first century, we are discovering that we will have a common future, or none at all.”
And zoonoses are firmly in our future. The UN estimates about 60 per cent of human infections arise from animals, both wild and domestic, and some 75 per cent of the new and emerging infectious diseases jump species from animals to humans.
Agriculture has played its part, through destroying habitat, inviting infection via stressed and overpopulated food animals, and through ill-protecting farm workers who may receive or pass on infections if required to work with animals while unwell.
A veteran of epidemiological fieldwork, Waltner-Toews offers entertaining and sobering insights into many of the world’s key outbreaks, including Western Equine Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, Avian Influenza, Ebola, and SARS-COV.
While the book may not explain the precise origins of today’s SARS-COV2 pandemic, it provides some telling context. Between 2018 and 2019, African Swine Flu swept through China – resulting in the slaughter of “about half the pigs in China and a quarter of the pigs in the world.” A large outbreak of avian influenza swiftly followed. Waltner-Toews speculates that the ensuing shortage of pigs and chickens led local Chinese New Year celebrants to seek out other, riskier protein sources for their festive tables.
Ultimately, Waltner-Toews concludes, humans must recognize that disrupting ecosystems has long-term consequences for all life on Earth. Consumers need to face the ecological and social costs of their dietary choices; and we need informed global leadership. “An inability to shop for food, prepare meals, and talk intelligently about where that food comes from should be grounds for dismissal of politicians and corporate heads.”
— Rhona McAdam