

Threat of diseases passed from animals will only increase, Oxford University vaccine professor warns

Humans are facing an increasing risk of diseases passed on by animals, the professor leading Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine development says.
Growing population density, increased international travel and deforestation have all made the spread of zoonotic diseases much more likely, vaccinology professor Sarah Gilbert told The Independent.
Researchers are yet to prove where COVID-19 originated, but most believe it was passed from bats to humans via another animal.
Likewise, scientists suspect SARS and Ebola were also diseases passed on from animals.
In June this year, scientists warned they had found a new strain of swine flu in China that could have the potential to become another pandemic.
The strain carried by pigs had "all the hallmarks" of being able to transmit from human to human, researchers wrote in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Pigs are considered as important hosts or 'mixing vessels' for the generation of pandemic influenza viruses," the researchers wrote.
No research is currently being undertaken at the CSIRO that has bats involved, Industry, Science and Technology minister Karen Andrews said.
The spread of zoonotic diseases is likely to become more common, Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is leading the development of Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine says. (Supplied)
Zoonotic diseases account for millions of deaths every year and about 60 per cent of the world's emerging infectious diseases have come from animals, according to the World Health Organisation.
As the world became more globalised, the risk of zoonotic diseases would continue to escalate, Professor Gilbert said.
"Because of the way things have been going in the world, it's more likely we'll have zoonotic infections causing outbreaks in the future," she said.
"Greater population density, greater travel, deforestation – all of these things make it more likely that these outbreaks will happen and then something will spread."
Professor Gilbert, whose work at Oxford University includes research for a universal flu vaccine that can protect against all strains, said another flu pandemic like the one in 2017-2018 was almost certainly on the cards.
"There will be another flu pandemic in the future," Professor Gilbert said.
"It will come around again, [but] we don't know which subtype of flu it will be.
"[With] flu there has been several pandemics every century as far back as we can measure things, and there are so many different flu viruses out there – so we can't ever eradicate flu.
"We've eradicated smallpox, as it doesn't exist in animals. We've come very close to eradicating polio – a very good result this week: no polio in Africa. That's huge.
"There are other diseases like measles that could in theory be eradicated as there's not an animal reservoir.
"But that doesn't apply to flu, and flu is in lots of migratory wild birds and we can't get rid of that reservoir."

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