Eli5: why do we kill livestock when theyre infected like an epidemic even though it wont affect us humans

Question

We had an livestock epidemic outbreak and it say it doenst affect human if we eat it why do we kill it ?

In: 0

Answer 1

Just because it won’t *infect* humans doesn’t mean it won’t *affect* us. In most cases, a serious livestock disease is going to kill a lot of animals. A livestock disease outbreak that isn’t checked immediately spreads to… MORE livestock, which starts to impact the economics of our food supply pretty quickly. Culling is typically on of the more efficient ways to stop an outbreak.

Also, the longer an outbreak goes on, and the more animals are infected, the greater the odds of some mutation that allows for zoonotic spillover, especially if we’re talking something like bird flu (H5N1) which has already spilled over into humans on more than one occasion and caused severe disease.

Answer 2

Viruses can and have been able to make the jump from animals to humans once they’ve evolved. See: COVID.

Answer 3

Viruses can and have been able to make the jump from animals to humans once they’ve evolved. See: COVID.

Answer 4

Viruses can and have been able to make the jump from animals to humans once they’ve evolved. See: COVID.