ABSTRACT
Humans are eating more animals than ever before. With this demand for animal products comes the intensification of animal agriculture and the suffering of more animals than ever before seen in human history. The conditions in these farms greatly contribute to the creation of deadly pathogens, including influenza viruses. Viruses pass readily from animal to animal in these operations not only because the animals are crowded together, but also because their ability to fight off infections is severely reduced by the distressing situations in which they are forced to live. As long as we continue to confine billions of animals on factory farms, we are unwittingly creating a global laboratory for the evolution of the virus. The only lasting solution is to significantly reduce our eating of animals.
