Horsetalk.co.nz Advocates seek greater investment in animal health to prevent future pandemics
Animal health advocates have penned an open letter calling on governments and international agencies to invest in animal health and welfare to prevent another pandemic.
Members of the Action for Animal Health coalition, in a letter marking Marking World Vet Day, assert that the importance of animal health systems to global health security is being overlooked.
One of the weakest health systems is the animal health system, they say.
“At least 75% of new human infectious diseases emerge from animals,” the 11 signatories wrote.
“Covid-19 joins a long list of other zoonotic diseases (infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans) with potentially fatal consequences for humans, such as rabies, ebola, SARS and avian influenza.