BBC Wildlife Magazine

The next pandemic could kick off on our own shores

THE FIGURES REPORTED IN MARK Carwardine’s opinion piece (February 2023) on last summer’s devastating avian flu outbreak are almost beyond comprehension. In our ‘animal-loving’ country it’s apparent that we are prepared to tolerate facilities that house in excess of a million birds!

SARS-CoV-2 should have taught us some valuable lessons about zoonotic diseases – when pathogenic viruses spill over from animals to humans. Covid-19 probably originated in a wet market in Wuhan, so it gave some the excuse to pin the blame on the Chinese. But we need to wake up – and quickly – because the next pandemic could just

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