A joint report from Harvard Law School and New York University has sounded the alarm that the next global pandemic could potentially emerge from the United States. The report focuses on

the interactions between humans, livestock, and wild animals within the country.

Zoonotic diseases, which originate in animals and can be transmitted to humans, have been the source of numerous past pandemics, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika, pandemic flu, and COVID-19. The report highlights that the belief that such diseases only happen elsewhere is a false sense of security. With lax regulations and frequent interactions between humans and animals, the risk of a deadly outbreak is very real in the US.

The report identifies several areas of vulnerability, including commercial farms where millions of livestock are in close contact with one another and their handlers, the wild animal trade with minimal health checks for imported animals, and the fur trade where minks and other animals are bred with limited safety oversight.

The US currently raises about 10 billion land animals each year, and the number is increasing by approximately 200 million annually. Poultry and pigs are especially numerous in the US, making them the likely vectors for a severe flu outbreak.

Industry representatives have defended their practices, but experts point out that workers on pig and poultry farms are at particular risk due to the lack of protective regulations. The mink and larger fur industry, which is even less regulated, poses a significant risk as mink are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, and outbreaks have occurred on American mink farms.

Moreover, about 220 million live wild animals are imported to the US each year without adequate health and safety checks, creating additional vulnerabilities.

The report's authors urge the US government to increase oversight and impose new safety regulations on animal industries. They hope Congress will take action to limit subsidies and promote transparency to reduce the risk of future pandemics originating from the US meat supply. Photo by Jean-Christophe BENOIST, Wikimedia commons.