Infectious Diseases and Meat Production
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Infectious Diseases and Meat Production Romain Espinosa1 · Damian Tago2 · Nicolas Treich3 Accepted: 13 July 2020 / Published online: 4 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Most infectious diseases in humans originate from animals. In this paper, we explore the role of animal farming and meat consumption in the emergence and amplification of infectious diseases. First, we discuss how meat production increases epidemic risks, either directly through increased contact with wild and farmed animals or indirectly through its impact on the environment (e.g., biodiversity loss, water use, climate change). Traditional food systems such as bushmeat and backyard farming increase the risks of disease transmission from wild animals, while intensive farming amplifies the impact of the disease due to the high density, genetic proximity, increased immunodeficiency, and live transport of farmed animals. Second, we describe the various direct and indirect costs of animal-based infectious diseases, and in particular, how these diseases can negatively impact the economy and the environment. Last, we discuss policies to reduce the social costs of infectious diseases. While existing regulatory frameworks such as the “One Health” approach focus on increasing farms’ biosecurity and emergency preparedness, we emphasize the need to better align stakeholders’ incentives and to reduce meat consumption. We discuss in particular the implementation of a “zoonotic” Pigouvian tax, and innovations such as insectbased food or cultured meat. Keywords Infectious diseases · Meat production · Meat consumption · Biodiversity · Prevention · Intensive farming · Regulation · Taxation JEL Classification I18 · Q18 · Q57
1 Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic invites us to reflect on infectious disease risk prevention policies. If the current emergency is to mitigate the impacts of this pandemic and address the induced economic and social damages, we must collectively improve our capacity to * Nicolas Treich [email protected] 1
CNRS, CREM, Rennes, France
2
Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand
3
Toulouse School of Economics, INRAE, Toulouse, France
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prevent the future risks of infectious disease outbreaks. In particular, we must better understand the mechanisms that increase the risk of the emergence of infectious diseases and their severity, and properly assess the role of economic development, globalization, trade, urbanization and population growth. In this paper, our objective is to specifically examine the role of animal farming and animal consumption in relation to epidemic outbreaks. About 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic; that is, they are transmissible diseases between humans and animals. Zoonoses cause approximately one billion cases of illness in people and millions of deaths every year (Karesh et al. 2012). Many of these diseases have emerg
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