And some of them might surprise you. Here’s a look at the latest on One Health and why it matters.
We recently came across an insightful interview with the EcoHealth Alliance's Dr. William Karesh—on Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle platform, which “has come under fire in recent years for supporting unscientific treatments and therapies and promoting gimmicks such as healing jade eggs,” as BIO’s Cornelia Poku explains in a blog post.
But we’ll give credit where it’s due because this interview is the real deal—and Dr. Karesh (who also appeared on the I AM BIO Podcast) covered the threat of emerging zoonotic diseases and the role of science in preventing the next pandemic.
And don’t internalize the stereotype of people in developing nations eating bats, pangolins, and gorillas. “In America, we eat wild deer and bison. Half of seafood is wild-caught. We have a wildlife section in our grocery stores, but we call it the seafood section,” said Dr. Karesh. “Americans eat as much wildlife as anybody else—it’s just that certain species are more high-risk than others. Bats are known to be riskier for transmitting diseases.”
But don't blame the animals—blame climate change, says this long (but very worthwhile) read from Ensia about the links between climate change, migration, and disease.
The story digs into the emergence of “bluetongue,” which has killed more than 1 million purebred merino sheep due to “climate change expanding both the range and transmission season” of a certain species of midge (a biting fly) carrying the disease.
“The bluetongue story shows how easily diseases can emerge from a background of climate change augmented by globalized trade and travel,” says researcher Daniel Brooks of the Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology at the University of Nebraska State Museum. “The planet is a minefield of evolutionary accidents waiting to happen.”
All of this is to say that we must continue to advocate for One Health policies—and explore the links between human, animal, and environmental health. Learn more.
More Agriculture and Environment News:
Zymergen: Zymergen takes aim at $3 trillion chemical & materials industry with $300 million in new funding
BIO member Zymergen announced “[o]ne of the largest deep tech investments of 2020 to fuel additional product releases and development of breakthrough materials.”