CONSEQUENCES

Debilitating dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes.

Officials warn that the United States is not equipped to handle the spread of infectious diseases caused by climate change; little investment or progress has been made in bolstering disease detection and response capabilities in the United States, despite warnings from intelligence agencies; increased heat, humidity, and rainfall have caused the spread of mosquitoes and other bugs which carry deadly tropical diseases to new areas where people have yet build up a resistance; the United States is now experiencing outbreaks of dengue fever and West Nile virus; in 2010 the CDC reported 110 deaths and 1,356 cases of West Nile virus in the United States; intelligence agencies also worry about the potential for the spread of these diseases to destabilize fragile nations across Asia and Africa.

Read the full article here:

http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-unprepared-climate-induced-disease-outbreaks

Photo Credit: athirday.info

While the monitoring of new and emerging infectious diseases has greatly improved over the past fifteen or so years mainly due to concerns related to possible bioterrorism events, the U.S. government (and governments around the world) still need to increase the scope of such surveillance and to better coordinate possible response programs.  Such programs are being worked upon but I am afraid that due to budget cuts such surveillance and response programs are going to result in less than adequate measures. These diseases will occur and they will spread especially with the coming environmental alterations due to climate change which will only encourage their development and spread. This is not a concern to be taken lightly. On the contrary, it is a concern that needs to be made clear to our government representatives by us as citizens expressing our concern. This is not a concern to leave up to the government to deal with when they think they are willing to include it into some pork barrel budget loop. This is a concern that we, as a people may feel, literally, in our gut and a concern we need to make clear to Congress that it needs to be funded. – Editor.

Livestock diseases present a growing threat to food security.

Seed Daily

http://www.seeddaily.com/

by Staff Writers

New Delhi, India (SPX) Feb 14, 2011

Increasing numbers of domestic livestock and more resource-intensive production methods are encouraging animal epidemics around the world, a problem that is particularly acute in developing countries, where livestock diseases present a growing threat to the food security of already vulnerable populations, according to new assessments reported at the International Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health.

“Wealthy countries are effectively dealing with livestock diseases, but in Africa and Asia, the capacity of veterinary services to track and control outbreaks is lagging dangerously behind livestock intensification,“ said John McDermott, deputy director general for research at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which spearheaded the work.

“This lack of capacity is particularly dangerous because many poor people in the world still rely on farm animals to feed their families, while rising demand for meat, milk and eggs among urban consumers in the developing world is fueling a rapid intensification of livestock production.”

The global conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), brings together leading agriculture, nutrition and health experts to assess ways to increase agriculture’s contribution to better nutrition and health for the world’s most vulnerable people.

The new assessments from ILRI spell out how livestock diseases present “double trouble” in poor countries.

First, livestock diseases imperil food security in the developing world (where some 700 million people keep farm animals and up to 40 percent of household income depends on them) by reducing the availability of a critical source of protein.

Second, animal diseases also threaten human health directly when viruses such as the bird flu (H5N1), SARS and Nipah viruses “jump” from their livestock hosts into human populations.

Read Full Article Here:

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Livestock_Boom_Risks_Aggravating_Animal_Plagues_999.html

The call for better and more effective animal disease (zoonotic) surveillance has been called for for a number of years now and especially since the emergence of A/H1N1 so-called Swine flu which emerged out of Mexico in April of 2009. It is now know that this strain of influenza virus was circulating through pig production facilities globally for an number of years prior to its emergence in a human population and is now the dominant flu strain being seen in the U.S. this year. Better monitoring of zoonotic diseases would greatly enhance our abilities to predict and counter future occurrences of these diseases not only in animal populations both wild and domestic but human populations as well.  Editor.