These findings should be a red flag to world leaders—a warning that we must address the dangers of factory farming before it’s too late to prevent another public health crisis arising from our exploitation of animals.

In its first annual State of the World’s Animal Health report, published on May 23, WOAH concludes that:

• Outbreaks of bird flu among mammals were over twice as high in 2024 as the previous year, “increasing the risk of further spread and human transmission.”
• Nearly half of animal diseases reaching “previously unaffected” regions of the world are zoonotic (able to spread to humans).
• While the use of antibiotics in animals dropped 5 percent from 2020 to 2022, one-in-five nations still use antibiotics to promote farm animal growth, which is “discouraged by WOAH.”

Read more here.

The reckless use of antibiotics in an attempt to prevent the spread of disease on factory farms is contributing to the global threat of treatment-resistant illnesses, linked to the deaths of over 1 million people around the world each year. 

Meanwhile, as bird flu has spread through the poultry industry, more than 173 million farmed birds have died or been culled in the U.S. alone since January 2022. The pathogen’s spread to cattle and other mammals has alarmed scientists and health officials, who warn that bird flu could become transmissible between humans as it continues to evolve. 

We already know that 75 percent of emerging human diseases are zoonotic, originating in animals. The bottom line is that if we continue to raise farm animals in the billions on filthy and crowded factory farms, we are putting ourselves at risk of the next zoonotic health disaster, just five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

Factory farms are breeding grounds for dangerous pathogens. To protect the public, the U.S. and other governments must shift funding away from factory farming and toward a safer, more sustainable plant-based food system. 

Learn more about bird flu and factory farming’s role in spreading it in these powerful op-eds from Farm Sanctuary:

• The Hill: Trump’s response to bird flu could be the defining test of his second term
• Newsweek: Trump’s Plan To Combat Bird Flu Will Ensure More Bird Flu
• Time: It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu 
• The Hill: Yes, you should be worried about bird flu
• Des Moines Register: Like birds before a storm, agribusiness industry is eerily quiet about bird flu 
• San Francisco Chronicle: Who’s to blame for bird flu’s spread on factory farms? It’s not wild birds or animal activists 
• MSNBC: The bird flu is uncontrolled, and it keeps showing up in the scariest places
• Los Angeles Times: This Thanksgiving, don’t eat turkeys. Try honoring them instead.