Farming carnivores may encourage ‘disease reservoirs’

Many viral and bacterial pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2 and Salmonella, can infect animal hosts before causing infection in humans. Around 49% of all carnivore species, including mink and dogs, carry one or more zoonotic pathogens — infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans. This is more than any other mammal, including bats. Why exactly carnivores carry so many zoonotic pathogens is unknown. Researchers have speculated it may be due to differences in their immune system or that, as they naturally carry many pathogens, they proportionally carry more zoonotic pathogens. Understanding how zoonotic pathogens behave in carnivores could help researchers protect against their risks to human health. In a recent study, led by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, researchers found carnivorous animals lack key genes needed to detect and protect against pathogens. “We’ve found that a whole cohort of inflammatory genes is missing in carnivores —...