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Human Health Impacts

The management and welfare of food animals directly impacts human health. Intensive farming operations which may house tens of thousands of animals in close quarters, serve as ideal incubators for disease. Several major human health concerns are associated with intensive farming including increased transfer of infectious agents from animals to humans, antibiotic resistance, food-borne illness and the generation of novel viruses. 

  • The sheer number of animals raised on confinement operations increases the transmission of infectious agents within flocks and herds and, by extension, between animals and farm workers.  Confinement-induced stress may also increase the frequency of illness and the shedding of viruses and bacteria.
  • Antibiotic resistance stemming from the use of antibiotics to promote growth and suppress disease on confinement operations, presents a serious health concern.  The low-level dosing of livestock and poultry with antibiotics that are identical or related to drugs used in human medicine has contributed to the spread of multidrug-resistant infections in humans. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that two million people contract antibiotic-resistant infections each year.
  • Animal and manure management on confinement operations, animal transport and meat processing can contribute to food contamination and food-borne illness.
  • The World Health Organization estimates 76 million cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. each year. Frequent and often high profile beef recalls due to E. coli O157 underscore this problem.
  • Finally, intensive farming operations facilitate the generation of novel viruses.  The cycling of viruses within large flocks and herds enables the generation of novel viruses though mutation and recombination. This process may render pathogens more easily transmissible to humans. Though novel viruses that are transmissible to humans are relatively rare, the current outbreak of H1N1 in pigs (swine flu) has exposed the potential severity of this issue.

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