Issue Dense intensive livestock near homes as a zoonotic risk

Summary

The report finds that the Netherlands, with its high population density and very high densities of intensive livestock farming close to homes, faces a risk of zoonoses emerging and spreading. Urbanisation, population pressure and large concentrations of intensive livestock farming are also cited as factors that raise the risk worldwide. On large poultry farms, low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses can get the chance to mutate into highly pathogenic variants, which can then do great harm to wild bird populations around the world. The report explains that pandemics and zoonoses turn land use into a health question and could lead to new insights about the distance between people and intensive livestock farming, green buffers, and water and nature areas. Health may become a more explicit criterion in housing construction, the agricultural transition and nature restoration.