VRG > Vegetarian Journal > 2021 Issue 4 > Risk of Viral Pandemics from Wet Markets and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Back Cover

Subscribe to the Vegetarian Journal

Risk of Viral Pandemics from Wet Markets and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Researched by Jacqueline Tang

The Covid-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, presents many unique challenges to public health. People may be wondering how a massive pandemic allegedly arose from one wet market - and how to prevent the next crisis. Unfortunately, the answer is complicated. It involves our relationships with animals (both wild and domestic) and with the environment. Climate change further influences all of these interactions.

Recently wet markets (which sell live animals for food) have come under scrutiny for the dangerous mixing of wild animals and humans. The criticism of these markets is filled with ethnocentrism and Western ideals. Although wet markets are undoubtedly perfect places for viral multiplication and transmission, people fail to recognize two other major factors:

  1. The role of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in spreading infectious disease to people.
  2. Humans' relationships with the Earth's ecosystems, both near and distant.

THE ORIGINS OF ZOONOTIC DISEASES
Viruses that come from animals, also called zoonotic viruses, are a major threat to society and public health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, "scientists estimate that more than six out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals."1 Since humans come in contact with animals in many ways, it's important to consider different situations where zoonotic diseases can be easily transmitted across species.

WET MARKETS
Recently, wet markets have come under scrutiny for the dangerous commingling of wild animals and humans. Also, they bring an exotic combination of animals, which normally are not found close to each other in the wild, together in one place. At a wet market:

  1. Wild animals can infect domesticated animals.
  2. Viruses can spread among different species.

Birds and bats especially carry many viruses. When they come in contact with an animal of a different species, a virus can mutate and adapt, eventually gaining the ability to infect a new host. In this manner, viruses spread widely.2

Some viruses are unable to directly infect a human, including avian (from birds) forms of influenza and some types of coronaviruses. These viruses require an intermediate host that serves as the go-between such that the virus can enter a new species. In the intermediate host, a virus changes sufficiently through mutations that enable it to adapt to a new host. Later, when given the chance to infect a human at close proximity, it may be able to do so by binding to specific cell receptors.3,4

The risk of wet markets stems from being places that allow for many different types of species to come in contact for the first time. This gives viruses numerous potential hosts and greater possibility of genetic recombination through mutation. Without certain mutations, a particular virus may not be able to exploit a new species.

The cramped conditions in wet markets lead to animals being under severe stress. As a result, wild animals, already carrying many viruses that they are immune to, will shed more viral particles in the market.5 This means that there is a greater chance of viral infection for humans and other animals that are in the wet market. Unfortunately, stressful conditions for animals are not unique to wet markets. Conventional animal agriculture also places extreme stress on animals some humans eat as food.

CONCENTRATED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS (CAFOs)
According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), CAFOs "congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area."6

CAFOs present many challenges for public health. The risk lies in their scale and sanitation. Many individuals of the same species, known as monocultures, are housed together in small cages, rooms, or buildings. If a virus is able to infiltrate (either from wild animal, human, or another method), it will easily spread among animals.

The lack of genetic diversity within livestock also facilitates viral transmission between animals.7 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO of the UN) stated that "livestock health is the weakest link in our global health chain, and disease drivers in livestock as well as wildlife are having increasing impacts on humans."8

THE WET MARKET-CAFO CONNECTION
Besides the contributions to pandemic risk that wet markets and CAFOs present when considered individually, their connection is also problematic. For example, consider the case of influenza, a common virus in poultry and swine. Influenza is more common within CAFOs compared to wet markets. In a systematic review over a six-year period, researchers noted that, of 364 avian influenza outbreaks, 56.1% originated in poultry CAFOs while only 0.8% started in wet markets.9

Scientists also report that many viruses undergo genetic recombination that occurs among individuals of the same species and between species. In other words, if a wild animal comes in contact with livestock, either directly or indirectly, it can easily spread certain viruses to the domestic food animals.10

Typically, viruses are not very pathogenic in the wild host. Once infected by a wild virus, domestic animals serve as "amplifier hosts" in which that virus often becomes more pathogenic than it was in the native species. Through genetic recombination and/or mutation, the wild virus becomes adapted to the new host.11

The transport of both domesticated and wild animals can also magnify zoonotic viruses. The animals being transported might be exposed to viruses that their immune systems have never encountered. During this exposure, foreign viruses have the potential to recombine and create completely novel viruses.12

J.F. Chan and colleagues, in a 2013 Trends in Microbiology article, state that in the wild, bats and birds are favorable reservoirs for most emerging viruses because of several "unique ecological, biological, immunological, and genetic features." The loss of biodiversity and habitats for bats and birds leads to an increased interaction with humans and other species, including domesticated animals. The researchers report that the increased crowding of different wildlife species at wet markets has made it easier for viruses to jump among species.13

In some countries, animal agriculture also occurs in mixed species settings. For example, in China, it's common to raise pigs along with ducks and other avian species.14 The high probability of viral transmission caused by interspecies mixing cannot be overstated.

THE ROLE OF INTERMEDIATE HOSTS IN VIRAL TRANSMISSION
In a 2020 editorial by A. Rodriguez-Morales and fellow researchers published in Le Infezioni in Medicina, many viruses use intermediate hosts like civets or camels because they cannot spread directly from the original infected animal (bat or bird) directly to humans.15

M. Konda and fellow investigators, in a 2020 review article in Cureus summarize the viral process in intermediate hosts:16

  1. Mutates and recombines in intermediate hosts, thus adapting to humans.
  2. Binds to the correct cell receptor in humans.
  3. Enters the human cell.
  4. Integrates its own genetic material into the human cells.
  5. Commands the human cell to reproduce virus.
  6. Human cell continues to reproduce more virus.

Some scientists hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, used an intermediate host between bat and humans just like its viral cousins responsible for other recent coronavirus outbreaks.17

CONCLUSIONS: PANDEMICS, WET MARKETS, AND CAFOs
Both wet markets and CAFOs present unique challenges for the future of public health. CAFOs, with thousands of genetically similar animals in close proximity, provide the perfect environment for a virus to spread.

Wet markets bring hundreds of wild species together in one place. They allow for interspecies viral transmission and the potential of recombination to form novel pathogens. Wet markets also allow virus-infected animals, like wild bats and birds, to come into contact with humans and domestic animals.

Both wet markets and CAFOs may have very poor sanitation and living conditions for animals, creating stressed animals that shed more virus. This situation facilitates rapid viral spread.

Wet markets and CAFOs jeopardize public health and food security. Research should focus on prevention of pandemics in both types of food systems. Ultimately, humans need to reevaluate their role in the Earth's ecosystems if we hope to prevent the next global pandemic of a zoonotic virus like SARS-CoV-2. Researchers report that the increased crowding of different wildlife species at wet markets has made it easier for viruses to jump between species.13

WHAT IS A WET MARKET?

According to researchers, "a typical wet market is a partially open commercial complex with vending stalls organized in rows; they often have slippery floors and narrow aisles along which independent vendors primarily sell 'wet' items such as meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and fruits." See: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-019-09987-2

In this sense of the term, wet markets exist all over the world, including the United States, where they are called "farmer's markets."

In this paper, "wet market" refers to open markets selling live animals, including wild, domestic, and/or domesticated wild animals, as well as animal products (eggs, meat, bones, organs, etc.).

WHAT IS A CONCENTRATED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATION (CAFO)?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) as "agricultural enterprises where animals are kept and raised in confined situations. AFOs congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, in fields, or on rangeland. There are approximately 450,000 AFOs in the United States." 19

"A CAFO is another EPA term for a large concentrated AFO. A CAFO is an AFO with more than 1,000 animal units (an animal unit is defined as an animal equivalent of 1,000 pounds live weight and equates to 1,000 head of beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 swine weighing more than 55 pounds, 125,000 broiler chickens, or 82,000 laying hens or pullets) confined on site for more than 45 days during the year. Any size AFO that discharges manure or wastewater into a natural or man-made ditch, stream, or other waterway is defined as a CAFO, regardless of size."19

References for this article can be found here: vrg.org/blog/2021/01/22/risk-of-viral-pandemics-from-concentrated-animal-feeding-operations-and-wet-markets

Note from the Editor: As of the time of this writing, there are questions on whether the Covid-19 pandemic was a "natural" crossover event or started from a lab. There are some strong opinions on this, which each side may accuse the other of political or economic influences. For a starting place for readers who want to explore further, look at:

Jacqueline Tang did an internship with The Vegetarian Resource Group while a pre-med and public health major at Johns Hopkins University.