Environmentalists flag public health risk to livestock disease

In a longstanding dispute between environmentalists and agriculture, two environmental groups are attempting to link a disease that affects ruminants with COVID-19. Western Watershed Project (WWP) and the Resource Renewal Institute served notice earlier in May to the National Park Service, citing the current public health crisis and Johne’s disease, which affects cattle, and noting the disease’s potential spread to visitors to the park. In the letter, the groups expressed concern the potential of zoonotic diseases are not “adequately addressed” in the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the general management plan (GMP) set to govern leasing by private livestock operations of National Park Service (NPS) lands on Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (collectively, “the Parks”). The groups state NPS has a responsibility to protect the human health and safety of the 3 million visitors who recreate at the Parks each year, and “should not assume the legal liabilities of putting the public at risk for zoonotic disease transmission to extend the questionable benefit of commercial beef and dairy operations within the Parks.” Deborah Moskowitz, president of Resource Renewal Institute, a local conservation group, stated, “When we dug deeper into the science, we discovered that Johne’s disease bacterium wasn’t just a major problem for Tule elk, but also a human health risk.” COVID-19, which is believed to be a zoonotic disease, caused the groups to investigate the bacteria Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), which causes Johne’s disease, and whether it poses a human health risk. The groups assert the MAP bacterium is closely related to Crohn’s disease in humans...MORE