A new program at the USDA will pay farmers and ranchers to plant bee-friendly crops. It’s about time
disease
EcocentricHealth
From AIDS to SARS to MERS, Emerging Infectious Diseases Remain a Dire Threat
New viruses like the pathogen that causes MERS are jumping across the species barrier, going from animals to human beings. Can we even eliminate infectious disease?
EcocentricGoing Green
After SARS: A New Virus in Saudi Arabia Underscores the Need to Police Disease in Animals
A new and deadly coronavirus emerges in Saudi Arabia. When will we learn to predict emerging diseases in animals before they make the jump to humans.
EcocentricWildlife
What’s the Buzz: Study Links Pesticide With Honeybee Collapse
Colony collapse disorder (CCD)—the sudden and massive die-off of honeybees—has emerged as one of the most mysterious ecological disasters of the past several years, and one of the most expensive. Around the middle of the last …
EcocentricWildlife
Bat Signal: More than 5 Million Bats Dead From White-Nose Syndrome
An animal apocalypse is happening right beneath our noses in the Northeast. Since 2006, bats throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Jersey, Indiana and other states have been infected with a deadly white-nose fungus that …
EcocentricFood
Farm Drugs: The FDA Moves to Restrict (Somewhat) the Use of Antibiotics in Livestock
It’s no secret that America has a drug problem—so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that our livestock have one as well. Antibiotics are a major part of the conventional meat industry, and the drugs aren’t just used to treat sick animals—they’re also given regularly in feed to help growth promotion of pigs, chickens and cattle. …
EcocentricOceans
Study Says Sea Lice From Farmed Salmon Do Hurt Wild Fish—But the Debate’s Not Over
One of the hottest points of debate on aquaculture is the effect that farmed fish might have on their wild cousins. Fish raised in a major aquaculture operation live in close, sometimes cramped conditions that are nothing like the open ocean. As a result, they can become victims of disease and parasites—just as for centuries human …
EcocentricOceans
How a Microbe in Humans Is Killing Coral
Usually infectious disease is a one-way street—and human beings are at the end. New viruses begin in wild animals—like monkeys or chickens—before they mutate and cross over to human beings. HIV, West Nile, SARS, H5N1, H1N1—just about every new infectious disease over the past several decades had its start in animals before …
EcocentricEcocentric
Needless Disease and Death in Somalia
As I’ve written before, the devastating famine in Somalia—which has killed tens of thousands in the Horn of Africa—may have been triggered by the worst drought in the region in 60 years, but it’s ultimately a manmade disaster. The ongoing insurgency in Somalia prevented food aid from reaching those in desperate need, and now the …
EcocentricWaste
Organic Farms May Keep Bacteria at Bay
Given how the cracks in our food system have recently expanded into troubling chasms – remember the ground turkey Salmonella scare, and the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strain – health experts are once again fretting about farms and the drugs used in them. And with good reason. Antibiotics may be some of the …