The health of humans, animals, and the environment are closely intertwined—human health in particular heavily depends on the health of the others.

In China, the outbreak of the African Swine Fever is expected to result in a 27% drop in the production of pigmeat, the country’s most consumed meat product.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have called for countries to suspend sales of live wild mammals in traditional food markets, also known as “wet markets”, in efforts to prevent the emergence of new deadly diseases, such as COVID-19.

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most important transboundary diseases of pigs. ASF has been identified in India for the first time in domestic pigs from outbreaks reported in two of the northeastern states, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in 2020. A total of 11 ASF outbreaks in different regions killed over 3700 pigs and devastated the economy of small-scale livestock owners of both the states.

Original Source 

COVID-19 has caused profound damage to human health, societies and economies in every corner of the world. This illness is zoonotic, a type of disease that transmits between animals and humans. It may be the worst, but it is not the first.

While the world continues to grapple with the devastating consequences of coronavirus, leading conservationist organisation WWF has called for urgent global action to address the key drivers which will cause future zoonotic disease outbreaks.

Exotic wild animals are being smuggled into Japan and once past Customs border controls, continue to be legally sold as pets finds a new TRAFFIC report, Crossing the red line: Japan’s exotic pet trade. The study also highlights the potential for the exotic pet trade to facilitate the transmission of zoonotic diseases.

Order of the High Court of Manipur in the matter of The Manipur Valley Village Reserve Forest Rights Protection Association Vs State of Manipur & Others dated 03/06/2020.

The petitioner had filed a PIL on the issue of forests and reserved forests of Manipur, which were being denuded and illegally encroached for various activities. The order noted that the "destruction of forests and invasion/intrusion of human beings in the forest domain displacing forest species appears to be a major factor for the series of diseases like the present COVID-19."

African swine fever (ASF) is a virulent disease of pigs that originated in Africa and has been reported in other continents from the 1950s1. It has recently spread into Eastern Asia and was recorded for the first time in China in August 2018.

Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. To investigate drivers of virus spillover, we evaluated the number of viruses mammalian species have shared with humans.

Pages