850k animal viruses ‘could hit humans’

UP to 850,000 viruses could make the jump from animals to humans and cause a future pandemic, a report suggests.

Bats, rodents, pigs and camels are among the creatures carrying microbes which could infect the world after Covid.

Experts are urging action to ‘escape the era of pandemics’, which have been partly driven by the growth of farming and the trade in exotic pets.

These increase contact between people, livestock and wild animals, making it far easier for viruses to jump species.

A workshop of 22 experts, convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, reports that more than five new diseases emerge in people every year – any one of which has the potential to reach pandemic levels.

An estimated 1.7million undiscovered viruses are thought to exist in mammals and birds. Of these, 540,000 to 850,000 could have the ability to infect people.

Workshop chairman Dr Peter Daszak said: ‘Here we are waiting for vaccines and drugs to work. It’s not a good strategy – we need to do more.’

He called for ‘a shift, from waiting for pandemics to emerge... to actually trying to prevent them by dealing with the underlying drivers of land use change, climate change and the wildlife trade’.