\nMajor meat and dairy suppliers are keeping animals in conditions which create the “ideal breeding ground” for new diseases and a future pandemic, including companies which supply major UK retailers such as Tesco.<\/p>\n
A report from non-profit organisation<\/a> the Fairr Initiative has scored food industry companies by their performance on mitigating the risk of allowing new global diseases to emerge. It found that two in every three suppliers (63%) failed to improve conditions which carry a high risk of infection.<\/p>\n The research, backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), warned that the failure to improve “crowded, high-stress conditions” in animal agriculture creates an \u201cideal breeding ground for new emerging diseases”.<\/p>\n FAIRR\u2019s\u00a0Emerging Disease Risk Ranking<\/a> labelled 38 out of 60 large meat, fish and dairy producers (63%) as ‘high risk’ for failing to address conditions and practices that could enable “new diseases to emerge and spread”. These included a Chinese supplier to Tesco.<\/p>\n Companies are labelled as ‘high risk’ for scoring poorly across a set of seven criteria vital to preventing future zoonotic pandemics (infections which cross from animals to humans). These include welfare conditions for animals as well as working conditions which contribute to the spread of disease among employees.<\/p>\n The report did show a slight improvement from June 2020, when 73% of the 60 companies were deemed to be high risk.<\/p>\n Read more: Pig farming branded ‘disgrace’ as 40,000 healthy animals are ‘wasted’\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Last year The Independent reported that<\/a> South African scientists warned that demand for regular supplies of affordable meat would create the risk of a future pandemic that “would make Covid seem a dress rehearsal”.<\/p>\n