Merck Animal Health SVP: to promote human health, invest in protecting animals
Source: Fortune ·
While humans invest billions each year to protect ourselves from disease, less than 1% of global health spending goes toward animal health.
From the source
Sixty years ago, the United States painstakingly “eradicated” the New World screwworm — a flesh-eating maggot that once decimated cattle herds across the South. The campaign saved livestock producers approximately $6 billion annually, accounting for inflation. Yet now, after brief outbreaks in Texas during the 1970s and the Florida Keys in 2016, the dangerous parasite has returned. In June, federal officials confirmed the first Texas case of New World screwworm in decades. Since then, the number of confirmed cases has grown to more than 50. Left unchecked, the outbreak still threatens to kill livestock and wildlife, infect pets, and potentially even infect people. Fortunately, scientists have far more tools to fight this outbreak than they did decades ago. The campaign that originally eradicated screwworm relied on what’s known as the sterile insect technique. Scientists raised massive numbers of screwworm flies, sterilized them with radiation, and released them into the wild. As…