Zoobiquity (40 page)
Authors: Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
The
E. coli
–tainted fresh baby spinach that killed three North Americans and sickened more than two hundred in 2006 was traced to the feces of wild pigs in the fields.
One of the world’s worst outbreaks of the eerily named Q fever struck the Netherlands in the late 2000s.
‡
Thirteen people died and thousands fell ill from the bacterial infection that spread to humans from infected goats on nearby farms.
The threat posed by animal diseases is unnerving enough when they travel among us on their own, without malice or intentional assistance.
But, like the loose Soviet nukes we fear may one day end up in the hands of terrorists, zoonoses can also be deliberately wielded against us.
Five of the six top organisms that according to the CDC “pose a risk to national security” began as animal diseases: anthrax, botulism, plague, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers.
§
In a world where no creatures are truly isolated and diseases spread around as fast as jets can fly, we are all canaries and the entire planet is our coal mine. Any species can be a sentinel of danger—but only if the widest array of health-care professionals is paying attention.
‖
Our essential connection with animals is ancient, and it runs deep. It extends from body to behavior, from psychology to society—forming the basis of our daily journey of survival. This calls for physicians and patients to think beyond the human bedside to barnyards, jungles, oceans, and skies. Because the fate of our world’s health doesn’t depend solely on how we humans fare. Rather, it will be determined by how
all
the patients on the planet live, grow, get sick, and heal.
*
The program brings together academic institutions, government agencies, and private entities: the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the EcoHealth Alliance, the Smithsonian Institution, Global Viral Forecasting, Development Alternatives Inc., the University of Minnesota, Tufts University, the Training and Resources Group, Ecology and Environment Inc., the World Health Organization, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), FHI-360, the CDC, and the USDA. It’s divided into four projects: “PREDICT (to monitor for emergence of infectious agents from high-risk wildlife), IDENTIFY (to develop a robust laboratory network), PREVENT (focusing on behavior change communication to help people avoid high-risk practices that could lead to transmission from animals to humans), and RESPOND (to expand family planning services and improve reproductive health in developing countries).”
†
In fact, swine flu started in human beings; we’re the ones who gave it to pigs, so it is technically what is called a reverse zoonosis. But because it was passed back to humans by pigs, after having traveled through the bird population, it’s also considered a zoonosis.
‡
“
Q” stands for “query” because when the disease first struck, in the 1930s, its cause was a mystery. Although the
Coxiella burnetii
bacterium was later isolated, the name had already stuck.
§
The sixth agent on the list, smallpox, was eradicated by worldwide vaccination programs in part because it’s not a zoonosis: it didn’t have an animal reservoir.
‖
In March 2007, American house pets sounded the alarm. When dogs and cats began getting sick and dying of kidney failure in massive numbers, veterinarians jumped on the case. The problem was traced to tainted pet food, leading to a huge recall across the United States. It turned out that Chinese wheat gluten manufacturers were adding the chemical melamine to their product in order to raise the perceived protein levels and were then selling the gluten to pet food manufacturers. Forewarned by the veterinarians, U.S. food safety and public health officials quickly placed stringent anti-melamine inspections in place for the human food supply. (Unfortunately, Chinese officials didn’t put the same measure into effect in time to save hundreds of Chinese babies, who were sickened and in some cases killed by melamine-tainted infant formula.)
Animals can also be sentinels for threats that are not infectious. Animal abuse is very strongly linked to child and domestic violence; British police, for example, have found that when child abuse is suspected in a home, incidents of animal abuse are often reported there first. Mistreatment of animals, particularly cats, strongly presages future antisocial and violent behavior against people. As Melissa Trollinger details in an article about the links between animal cruelty and human abuse, the mass murderers “Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert DeSalvo (the ‘Boston Strangler’), Ted Bundy, and David Berkowitz (the ‘Son of Sam’) all admitted to mutilating, impaling, torturing, and killing animals in their youth.”
Zoobiquity
—the book, the conferences, the research initiative—has been possible only because of the great generosity, support, collegiality, and openness of the hundreds of veterinarians, wildlife biologists and physicians we have met over the course of this project. For sharing their time and tremendous knowledge, and for welcoming us and embracing
Zoobiquity
, we’re deeply grateful to each and every one of these doctors. For special support and for their field leadership on the veterinary side, we’d like to thank Stephen Ettinger, Curtis Eng, Patricia Conrad, and Cheryl Scott, as well as the following DVMs: Melissa Bain, Stephen Barthold, Philip Bergman, Robert Clipsham, Vicki Clyde, Lisa Conti, Mike Cranfield, Peter Dickinson, Nicholas Dodman, Kirsten Gilardi, Carol Glazer, Leah Greer, Carl Hill, Malika Kachani, Laura Kahn, Bruce Kaplan, Mark Kittleson, Linda Lowenstine, Roger Mahr, Jonna Mazet, Rita McManamon, Franklin McMillan, Tracey McNamara, Dan Mulcahy, Hayley Murphy, Suzan Murray, Phillip Nelson, Patricia Olson, Bennie Osburn, Marguerite Pappaioanou, Joanne Paul-Murphy, Paul Pion, Edward Powers, E. Marie Rush, Kathryn Sulzner, Jane Sykes, Lisa Tell, Ellen Weidner, Cat Williams, and Janna Wynne.
We are deeply grateful to the many members of the human medical and scientific community who have provided us with support and wise counsel: C. Athena Aktipis, Allan Brandt, John Child, Andrew Drexler, Steven Dubinett, James Economou, Paul Finn, Alan Fogelman, Patricia Ganz, Atul Gawande, Michael Gitlin, Peter Gluckman, David Heber, Steve Hyman, Ilana Kutinsky, Andrew Lai, John Lewis, Melinda Longaker, Michael Longaker, Aman Mahajan, Randolph Nesse, Claire Panosian, Neil Parker, Neil Shubin, Stephen Stearns, Shari Stillman-Corbitt, Jan Tillisch, A. Eugene Washington, James Weiss, and Douglas Zipes. A number of groups also provided access and advice: the Great Apes Health Project, American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, UC Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, UCLA Division of Cardiology, One Health Initiative, and One Health Commission.
We are indebted to many other friends and colleagues who shared their time and wisdom with us by reading chapters or the whole book: Sonja Bolle—whose keen editorial instincts also brought us together for this project and Daniel Blumstein—whose expertise and kindness provided much needed support and confidence. In addition, our gratitude goes to David Baron, Burkhard Bilger, Emily Beeler, Chris Bonar, and Michael Gisser whose insights and thoughtful suggestions vastly improved the manuscript. Special thanks also to Stephanie Bronson, Susanne Daniels, Beth Friedman, Eric Pinckert, Eric Weiner, Deborah Landau, and Kathleen Hallinan.
The book was greatly enhanced by knowledgeable field experts who carefully read individual chapters for content and accuracy: Kalyanam Shivkumar, Mark Litwin, Tom Klitzner, Deborah Krakow, Greg Fonarow, Laraine Newman, Mark Sklansky, Kevin Shannon, Gary Schiller, Ardis Moe, Daniel Uslan, Mark D’Antonio, Michael Strober, and Robert Glassman.
Our appreciation goes to the team who worked tirelessly to make the first Zoobiquity Conference a tremendous success: Julio Lopez, Cynthia Cheung, Kate Kang, Wesley Friedman, and Meredith Masters. Thanks also to Zachary Rabiroff, Brittany Enzmann, and Jordan Cole for research support.
And with the deepest heartfelt gratitude we thank Jordan Pavlin, our extraordinary editor at Knopf who championed Zoobiquity at every phase, and nurtured it (and us) with her deep experience, sure and steady hand, patience, passion, and vision. Special thanks go also to her assistants, Caroline Bleeke and Leslie Levine for their grace and enthusiasm; to Knopf’s Paul Bogaards, Gabrielle Brooks and Lena Khidritskaya for their creativity and energy; to Chip Kidd for designing a beautiful cover; and to the entire Knopf production team for its tenacity and attention to detail.
A stroke of superb good fortune befell us when Tina Bennett became our literary agent. Brilliant and inspiring, incisive, diplomatic and funny, Tina is truly the best in the business, as are the other members
of the magnificent team at Janklow and Nesbit, Stephanie Koven and Svetlana Katz.
Singular thanks go to Susan Kwan for taking on the heroic tasks of organizing and formatting the endnotes, bibliographies, and website—and for fact-checking much of the manuscript. Intuitive, inventive and resourceful, Susan has been a privilege to work with. She greatly improved the text and any mistakes that remain are ours.
Finally, this book simply would not have been written without the generosity and forbearance of our families. For their unflagging encouragement, intellectual contributions, and for enduring more than their share of dinner conversations that turned inevitably to the finer points of insect mating or the dread-inducing minutiae of cardiac distress, Kathryn would like to thank Andrew and Emma Bowers, Arthur and Diane Sylvester, Karin McCarty, and Marjorie Bowers. Barbara would like to thank Zachary, Jennifer, and Charlie Horowitz, Idell and Joseph Natterson, Cara and Paul Natterson, and Amy and Steve Kroll.
Writing
Zoobiquity
has been an exhilarating process of bringing together a tremendous amount of material from many different fields. To make the sourcing as user-friendly as possible, we’ve divided it into two categories.
For full citations of quotations and references from the text, please see the following endnotes.
For further reading and a complete bibliography of the books, journal articles, popular reporting, and interviews that we cite and which shaped and inspired our thinking, please visit
www.zoobiquity.com
.
Dr. House, Meet Doctor Dolittle
1
There was even an article
: A. M. Narthoorn, K. Van Der Walt, and E. Young, “Possible Therapy for Capture Myopathy in Captured Wild Animals,”
Nature
274 (1974): p. 577.
2
Cardiology in the early 2000s
: K. Tsuchihashi, K. Ueshima, T. Uchida, N. Oh-mura, K. Kimura, M. Owa, M. Yoshiyama, et al., “Transient Left Ventricular Apical Ballooning Without Coronary Artery Stenosis: A Novel Heart Syndrome Mimicking Acute Myocardial Infarction,”
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
38 (2001): pp. 11–18; Yoshiteru Abe, Makoto Kondo, Ryota Matsuoka, Makoto Araki, et al., “Assessment of Clinical Features in Transient Left Ventricular Apical Ballooning,”
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
41 (2003): pp. 737–42.
3
This distinctive condition presents
: Kevin A. Bybee and Abhiram Prasad, “Stress-Related Cardiomyopathy Syndromes,”
Circulation
118 (2008): pp. 397–409.
4
But what’s remarkable about takotsubo
: Scott W. Sharkey, Denise C. Windenburg, John R. Lesser, Martin S. Maron, Robert G. Hauser, Jennifer N. Lesser, Tammy S. Haas, et al., “Natural History and Expansive Clinical Profile of Stress (Tako-Tsubo) Cardiomyopathy,”
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
55 (2010): p. 338.
5
Jaguars get breast cancer
: Linda Munson and Anneke Moresco, “Comparative Pathology of Mammary Gland Cancers in Domestic and Wild Animals,”
Breast Disease
28 (2007): pp. 7–21.
6
Rhinos in zoos
: Robin W. Radcliffe, Donald E. Paglia, and C. Guillermo Couto,
“Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in a Juvenile Southern Black Rhinoceros,”
Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
31 (2000): pp. 71–76.
7
Melanoma has been diagnosed
: E. Kufuor-Mensah and G. L. Watson, “Malignant Melanomas in a Penguin (
Eudyptes chrysolophus
) and a Red-Tailed Hawk (
Buteo jamaicensis
),
” Veterinary Pathology
29 (1992): pp. 354–56.
8
Western lowland gorillas
: David E. Kenny, Richard C. Cambre, Thomas P. Alvarado, Allan W. Prowten, Anthony F. Allchurch, Steven K. Marks, and Jeffery R. Zuba, “Aortic Dissection: An Important Cardiovascular Disease in Captive Gorillas (
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
),
” Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
25 (1994): pp. 561–68.
9
I learned that koalas in Australia
: Roger William Martin and Katherine Ann Handasyde,
The Koala: Natural History, Conservation and Management
, Malabar: Krieger, 1999: p. 91.
10
In fact, a century or two
: Robert D. Cardiff, Jerrold M. Ward, and Stephen W. Barthold, “ ‘One Medicine—One Pathology’: Are Veterinary and Human Pathology Prepared?”
Laboratory Investigation
88 (2008): pp. 18–26.
11
“Between animal and human medicine”:
Joseph V. Klauder, “Interrelations of Human and Veterinary Medicine: Discussion of Some Aspects of Comparative Dermatology,”
New England Journal of Medicine
258 (1958): p. 170.
12
Morrill Land-Grant Acts
: U.S. Code, “Title 7, Agriculture; Chapter 13, Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges; Subchapter I, College-Aid Land Appropriation,” last modified January 5, 2009, accessed October 3, 2011.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/pdf/uscode07/lii_usc_TI_07_CH_13_SC_I_SE_301.pdf
.
13
That’s when a veterinarian
: Roger Mahr telephone interview, June 23, 2011.
14
One of the first modern
: UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, “Who Is Calvin Schwabe?,” accessed October 3, 2011.
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/onehealth/about/schwabe.cfm
.
15
“One Health summit”:
One Health Commission, “One Health Summit,” November 17, 2009, accessed October 4, 2011.
http://www.onehealthcommission.org/summit.html
.
16
“we do not like to consider”:
Charles Darwin,
Notebook B:
[
Transmutation of Species
]: 231, The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, accessed October 3, 2011.
http://darwin-online.org.uk
.
17
Octopuses and stallions sometimes self-mutilate
: Greg Lewbart,
Invertebrate Medicine
, Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006: p. 86.
18
Chimpanzees in the wild
: Franklin D. McMillan,
Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals
, Hoboken: Blackwell, 2005.
19
The compulsions psychiatrists treat
: Karen L. Overall, “Natural Animal Models of Human Psychiatric Conditions: Assessment of Mechanism and Validity,”
Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
24 (2000): pp. 727–76.
20
Maybe Lady Diana or Angelina Jolie
: BBC News, “The Panorama Interview,” November 2005, accessed October 2, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html
; “Angelina Jolie Talks Self-Harm,” video, 2010, retrieved October 2, 2011, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1Ay4u5JDE
; Angelina Jolie,
20/20
interview, video, 2010, retrieved October 3, 2011, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfzPhag_09E&feature=related
.
21
Significantly for addicts and their therapists
: Ronald K. Siegel,
Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise
, New York: Pocket Books, 1989.
22
But examples of what appears
: McMillan,
Mental Health
.
23
Not so long ago, paleontologists uncovered
: Houston Museum of Natural Science, “Mighty Gorgosaurus, Felled By … Brain Cancer? [Pete Larson],” last updated August 13, 2009, accessed March 3, 2012.
http://blog.hmns.org/?p=4927
.
24
In 2005
, Nature
published:
Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, “Initial Sequence of the Chimpanzee Genome and Comparison with the Human Genome,”
Nature
437 (2005): pp. 69–87.
25
Deep homology
is the term
: Neil Shubin, Cliff Tabin, and Sean Carroll, “Fossils, Genes and the Evolution of Animal Limbs,”
Nature
388 (1997): pp. 639–48.
26
The longest tunnels
: Burkhard Bilger, “The Long Dig,”
The New Yorker
, September 15, 2008.
27
Cockroaches helped solve
: TED, “Robert Full on Engineering and Revolution,” filmed February 2002, accessed October 3, 2011.
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_on_engineering_and_evolution.html
.