Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
“Anthropogenic factors such as agricultural
expansion and intensification to meet the
increasing demand for animal protein, global
travel, trade in domestic or exotic animals,
urbanization, and habitat destruction
comprise some of the major drivers of
zoonotic disease emergence.”
—World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, and World
Organization for Animal Health (WHO/FAO/
OIE). 2004. Report of the WHO/FAO/OIE joint
consultation on emerging zoonotic diseases.
multidrug-resistant “superbugs” and we physicians are running
out of antibiotics.
Between 1975 and 1995, seventeen food-borne pathogens
emerged, including
E. coli
O157:H7 in hamburgers, antibiotic-
resistant
Salmonella
in eggs, and urinary tract infection-causing
bacteria in chicken meat and pork. The Centers for Disease Control
estimates 76 million Americans come down with food-borne ill-
ness every year. According to the executive editor of
Meat Process-
ing
magazine, “Nearly every food consumers buy in supermarkets
and order in restaurants can be eaten with certainty for its safety—
except for meat and poultry products.”
In response to the torrent of emerging and reemerging diseases
jumping from animals to people, the world's three leading authori-
ties got together in 2004 for a joint consultation: the World Health
Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO), and the top veterinary authority in the world,
the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). They identified
four main risk factors for the emergence and spread of these new
