Factory farms are an ideal breeding ground for the next pandemic

Swine influenza under an electron microscope. | BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images

One researcher says we are “playing Russian roulette.”

We’ve seen the devastating effects of a pandemic firsthand: the loss of human life, the economic toll, and the impact on everything from mental health to children’s education.

Which is why, as Covid-19 spread, people looked for a way to prevent future outbreaks.

In the US, people started to call for the closure of “wet markets” overseas. Some research suggested that the many different species living closely together in these markets might have allowed the virus to mutate and jump to humans.

But Martha Nelson, who studies viruses at the National Institutes of Health, says that if we’re really serious about preventing a future pandemic, we also need to look closer to home.

“I think it’s really easy to think that pandemics come from other places,” she explains, “I think it’s really easy to think that they’re foreign invaders coming from other people who were doing things in a bad way. And I certainly would never underplay the importance of wet markets and all the opportunities for novel pathogens to emerge there. But I think it’s sometimes hard to see things in your own backyard.”

On this episode of the Future Perfect podcast, Nelson explains the pandemic risk lurking on factory farms in the US.

Nelson has studied our system of raising pigs closely, and she argues that by moving pigs across the country and raising large numbers of pigs in very close proximity, we’re creating ideal conditions for a dangerous influenza virus to develop. And since she’s also seen how easily pigs can spread novel viruses to humans, she’s even more concerned.

Given the frequency of pig to human transmission, she says, we’re “playing Russian roulette” with our current system of factory farming animals.

Further reading:

• Sigal Samuel wrote an in-depth explainer on the pandemic risks of factory farms earlier this year. She’s also written about “wet markets.”
• For more on how viruses can spread in the pig population, Martha Nelson has an excellent paper, “When Pigs Fly.”
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations wrote a 2013 report on the health risks of factory farming.
• Sonia Shah’s book, Pandemic, is a great primer on how pandemic strains emerge.

This podcast is made possible thanks to support from Animal Charity Evaluators. They research and promote the most effective ways to help animals.

---

Help keep Vox free for all

Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what’s happening in the news, from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. If you have already contributed, thank you. If you haven’t, please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world: Contribute today from as little as $3.