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Should the world accelerate the development of cultured meat to save us from pandemics far worse than COVID-19? A "near miss" potential disaster with H5N1 bird flu & American milk suggests yes. (self.futurology)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Lugh to c/futurology

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People often catastrophize about the potential for near misses with large asteroids. In reality, far more deadly "near misses" are happening with H5N1 bird flu, and they don't seem to be taken as seriously.

When mammals get the H5N1 bird influenza virus the prognosis is grim. Often with up to 50% mortality rates. Fortunately, although mammals (including humans) have gotten H5N1 from proximity to birds, the virus has not mutated to spread from mammal to mammal - so far. Yet it seems like we are constantly rolling the dice in the world's unluckiest lottery, and it may happen someday.

The latest gamble is being played out in the US farming sector. H5N1 has now been found in cows in 8 different states. Several cats on these farms have died from H5N1, probably via ingesting unpasteurized milk. This week US government officials have said material from the H5N1 strain, which is causing the outbreak, had been detected in milk sold in shops.

In a world with cultured meat from animal cells, and no farm animals, this problem would be greatly lessened. Especially in China, where animal farming sanitary standards are low. Is this all a reason to speed up a transition to meat via cultured cells?

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[–] MisterD@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 months ago

Studies show that farming for meat is intensive on methane emissions. This would do wonders to fix that.

[–] Ummdustry@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not entirely sure where the concept that farmed meat would be immune to pathogens comes from? It's still meat afterall, it's still got cells that are suspectable to disease. And it's not like they could be indefinately kept in isolation to each other either. Eventually the move away from fbs necessiates that we get lab meat from lab meat, ouroboros style. Not to mention such labgrown meat is unlikely to have all the lymph nodes etc.. of a real cow.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

Pathogens would still be a concern, but I think the idea is that it is easier to control the cleanliness of a stainless steel bioreactor than the cleanliness a barn with poop everywhere.

[–] h3ndrik@feddit.de 2 points 7 months ago

I'd say there are more reasons not to breed animals, kill them and eat their flesh... I mean avoiding pandemics is nice, too. But that's not the first reason that comes to my mind 😆

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

Not the only reason, but probably another good advantage.

@Lugh@futurology.today, would the admins consider starting a designated community for cultured meat and other cellular agriculture? I'm not interested in every futurology topic, but I would definitely subscribe to !CellAg@futurology.today or something.