U.S. has 'blind spots' in its preparations for zoonotic diseases, experts warn

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The United States, where more zoonotic diseases have originated than any other country in the world, has "blind spots" in its strategies for preparing for such threats, according to an analysis published by experts on Thursday.

The new analysis was co-authored by Ann Linder, a researcher with Harvard Law School, and New York University professor Dale Jamieson, an expert on environmental and animal protection, as an editorial published in the academic journal Science.

According to a news release from NYU, the editorial was based on research from the Live Animal Markets Project -- a program from Harvard Law School led by Linder to study live animal markets.

Linder and Jamieson began the editorial with criticism of an update to the National Biodefense Strategy by the administration of President Joe Biden. It was the first update made to the document, known as NBS-22, since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

"Although the document notes that one of the lessons of the pandemic is that threats originating anywhere are threats everywhere, it frames threats as largely external to the United States," Linder and Jamieson wrote in the editorial.

"NBS-22 focuses primarily on bioterrorism and laboratory accidents, neglecting threats posed by routine practices of animal use and production inside the United States."

The authors added that the Biden administration is not alone in its failures "to confront these risks" but implicated that the United States for its "responsibility in generating these global risks."

"More zoonotic diseases originated in the United States than in any other country during the second half of the 20th century," Linder and Jamieson wrote.

The United States processed more than 10 billion livestock in 2022, the largest number ever recorded, even as the outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus "has left 58 million animals dead in backyard chicken coops and industrial farms."

The authors also seemed to express criticism at the United States for referring to its own wet markets as "live poultry markets," unlike in other countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to have begun at a wet market in Wuhan, China, after the virus jumped from an animal -- believed to be bats -- into humans.

"Since 2011, the U.S. has recorded more swine-origin influenza infections than any other country. Most occurred at state and county fairs, where an estimated 18% of swine have tested positive. These fairs attract 150 million visitors each year," Linder and Jamieson wrote.

"In 2012, H3N2v influenza jumped from pigs to humans at livestock exhibitions and infected 306 people across 10 states, with suspected human-to-human transmission. Still, animal fairs remain largely unregulated and exempt from federal oversight."

The authors added that the United States consumes an estimated 1 billion pounds of wild game each year, which is "not inspected" and "no sanitary measures are required."

The largest blind spot comes from the fact that various agencies in the United States with "ill-defined jurisdictions" are tasked with handling wildlife imports.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees most of these imports, has stated that it does not have independent authority to detain shipments of sick animals," Linder and Jamieson wrote.

The authors noted that mpox, the new name for monkeypox, arrived in the United States in 2003 in one of these shipments.

"These examples illustrate a regulatory system in urgent need of reconstruction," the authors concluded.

"What is needed is not simply for agencies to do their jobs better or to paper over the gaps, but a fundamental restructuring of the way that human-animal interfaces are governed."