Scientists are growing increasingly concerned about bird flu (H5N1, avian influenza) as it made the jump from birds to dairy cows this year. Fears of a new pandemic have come up as one person in the United States has now been infected, and FDA tests showed that 1 in 5 samples of milk contained traces of the bird flu virus (Nix, Griffin, and Gale 2024). Of the 254 cases of bird flu in humans since 2003, 56% of those infected died (WHO 2024). This number, also known as the case fatality rate (CFR), is much higher than the CFR of COVID-19.

Bird flu may seem like a biological problem, and it is. However, it is also a social problem that requires a sociological understanding. One theoretical framework that sociologists use to understand the problem of bird flu is One Welfare. One Welfare argues that human, animal, and environmental well-being are interlinked. If the welfare of one of these areas suffers, it will likely lead to negative welfare outcomes for the other areas (Colonius and Early 2013). Bird flu is a good case study to see One Welfare in action.

As human populations have expanded, they have destroyed natural habitats and come into closer contact with wild animal populations. The destruction of the environment and ecosystems essential to the survival and welfare of different species means that these species must find new places to live. Although it can be hard to imagine, pigeons lived in other habitats before cities, but they have adapted so well to the built infrastructure humans created that the two are now strongly associated in many people’s minds. This closeness due to the loss of natural spaces also means that there is increased potential for disease to spread from wild animals to humans or from wild animals to domesticated animals as they come into closer and more frequent contact.

Humans have greatly expanded the scale of animal agriculture to make it more efficient and productive, which has had drastic effects on animal welfare as many more animals are confined to small spaces. Farms with chickens, for example, frequently raise tens of thousands of birds together in extremely crowded conditions. In fact, to qualify as “Certified Humane,” laying hens are only required to have 1.5 square feet of space per hen (CIWF 2024). Viruses have the potential to mutate every time they spread from one animal to another, so when a virus is introduced into a modern animal agricultural setting it can spread and mutate quickly as it jumps between thousands of animals in close quarters (Marchese and Hovorka 2022). Currently, bird flu is not very transmissible to humans, but the recent jump to dairy cows alarms scientists because it could mean the virus is learning to adapt to mammals and could therefore spread more easily to humans.

So, as humans have harmed the welfare of the environment and animals, we have created welfare problems for ourselves. Many studies link the emergence of COVID-19 to a wet market in Wuhan, China, where wild animals were kept in conditions that allowed the virus to jump between species, mutate, and then spread to humans. One of the factors that led to the COVID-19 pandemic was disregard for the welfare of animals and the environment, and the impacts on humans in terms of death, economics, and social loss were huge (Pinillos 2021). The toll of a bird flu pandemic on human health, economy, and society has the potential to be even larger. Although the number of humans affected by bird flu is small now, the CDC warns that another pandemic is possible (CDC 2024).

COVID-19 is the most recent example of zoonotic disease caused in part by a neglect for animal welfare, but there are many more. One example is mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). This disease developed in cows in the 1980s in the United Kingdom, where cows were being fed the remains of sheep, goats, and other cattle (Brown et al. 2001). Eating other animals is something that cows, which are herbivores, do not do naturally—something that goes against their welfare interests. This was done to ensure the maximum economic profit; feeding otherwise unsellable animal remains to cattle increased profit for the cattle industry. Additionally, the high protein content in these remains made the cattle grow more quickly (Best 2001). If humans eat infected meat from these cows, it can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which affects the brain in many ways, from impaired memory, confusion, and lack of coordination to more serious effects like blindness, coma, and death (NIH 2024).

For the CDC, the threat of a bird flu pandemic means increasing surveillance, studying the virus, and preparing vaccines. While these steps are no doubt important, sociology and the One Welfare framework suggest that there is more we must do. Specifically, we must change the ways in which we relate to and think about the environment and other animals—both wild and domesticated. This can be challenging for people because it often involves a lifestyle change; however, a recognition that our own welfare is at stake if we fail to consider the welfare of animals and the environment can be a strong motivator for change.

The following are some suggestions for changing the ways in which humans interact with animals and the environment to improve their welfare and reduce the risk of a future pandemic:

  • Dedicating more land as protected natural areas (see Terraube and Fernández-Llamazares 2020) and implementing more protections to preserve species biodiversity (see Keesing and Ostfeld 2021).
  • Shifting government subsidies from animal-based products to plant-based products. Currently, the U.S. government spends $38 billion each year subsidizing animal products, which artificially deflates the cost of a pound of beef from around $30 to $5 (Gillette and Barge 2022). With this shift in subsidies, we must also work to support farmers as part of a “just transition” from animal agriculture to other food production (Blattner 2020).
  • Moving from an animal-based to a plant-based diet (see Marchese and Hovorka 2022). Making such a shift can cut a person’s carbon footprint in half (Scarborough et al. 2014) and save the lives of around 30 land animals each year (Ritchie, Rosado, and Roser 2023).

Discussion Questions

  1. How have you seen your own well-being connected to the well-being of the environment and to animal welfare?
  2. How do you think culture and the economy are connected to human, animal, and environmental well-being?
  3. What do you see as the biggest challenges to improving welfare for humans, animals, and the environment?