[Taxacom] Humans (especially corporations) spreading diseases

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi David, 
       EXCELLENT suggestion. Herbivores are definitely at
most risk by such practices.   Therefore, feed chicken corpses to
alligators if they must, but chickens eating chicken offal or cows
eating cow offal is something in which only greedy humans (especially
big corporations) would be stupid enough to participate.  But I doubt
that they really care about the suffering that their stupidity and greed
cause to either the animals or humans down the food chain from infected
animals.        
       However, there are also perhaps a smaller number of
non-human carnivores also at risk by human activity. As I recall,
several years ago, wasn't the spread of West Nile Virus across the
United States in part possibly a result of horsemeat being feed to
carnivores in zoos? Whether human stupidity can spread such diseases
faster than natural vectors (birds in that case) must always be
considered. Humans can probably spread disease far faster than migrating
birds in many cases.                
       Those who are driven by greed could probably care less how their
actions cause problems down the line. The human spreaders of disease
probably now vastly exceed the ability of other organisms, even those
that migrate annualy.  Also, infected humans probably now migrate
(travel) much faster than natural vectors. Or other greedy human simply
ship infected organisms (like horsemeat) without regard to the possible
consequences. When you have billions of humans on the planet, many tens
of thousands of them are likely to be up to no good---terrorism, fraud,
murder, sexual crimes, environmental crimes, etc. The news is full of
it.         
      Trouble is that environmental crimes (especially those
that result in deaths from disease) are the least likely to be detected
and prosecuted. These and other uch criminals get fines that are mere
slaps on the wrist ("the cost of doing businees").  And a lot of
politicians who rail against proposed  regulations actually seemed more
interested in promoting big busines interests, even though they give lip
service to  the importance of small business.  Small farmers are more
likely to be aware of such probems, but they don't stand a chance
against big corporations who tend to increasingly conspire against both
small farmers and consumers in general.   Not likely that the Iowa
"megafarmers" would ship their chicken meal down south to feed
alligators.  It's cheaper and easier for them to just feed it to their
live chickens, and the recalls and law suits are likely just a bump in
the road for them and their lawyers.  Until these big violators are
fined big time, they will just write it off as a cost of doing business,
and perhaps even get a tax break in the process.  Congress largely just
ignores such problems, and/or some of them insert loop holes in any
legislation that might be passed.  Rich "farmers" know how to work that
system, whereas the regular family farmers get the shaft and have to
evemtually sell their farms to "corporate" megafarming conglomerations.  
                      ------Ken
Kinman

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David Campbell wrote: 
            Generalist carnivores may frequently
feed on smaller or dead individuals of the same species (e.g.,
alligators). Herbivores, or species that recently evolved carnivory, are
less likely to have protections against diseases transmitted by meat
consumption, including cannibalism. Some of the diseases also have such
a long development time that there's minimal evolutionary selection for
protection. Rather than making chickens into chicken feed, it's more
prudent to add a gator farm on the side and feed them, a business model
that has been tried with some success.