WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

While millions of people own cats and dogs and wouldn’t dream of getting rid of them, pets pose a health risk to humans that is massively overlooked, according to a new study. Since the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world with devastating impact, it has become evident how much of a risk new viruses can pose to our well-being. However, experts are warning that it is not just the wildlife trade or exotic animals that we should be concerned about, as pets could also be sources of zoonotic diseases (which jump from animals to humans). Back garden pets, house pets, working animals and even rodents and pests could host new viruses that could affect humans, according to a new study. It warns that the urbanisation of our habitats and climate change will have an impact on diseases and their dynamics. The study was shared in Science Translational Medicine and penned by disease ecologist Amandine Gamble along with a group of colleagues, who gave examples of how companion animals (aka pets) and stray animals carried a risk of zoonotic spillover. While the risk is thought to be small, experts warn it is significantly underappreciated, especially given the frequent proximity human beings have to pets and strays. The study said: “These animals can play critical roles in zoonotic spillover by enabling the maintenance of a zoonotic pathogen, facilitating its spatial spread, acting as a bridge between otherwise unconnected species, or providing particular opportunities for its evolution.” While the zoonotic spillover that caused Covid-19 sparked a global pandemic, any instance of infection that jumps from animal to human is known as a zoonotic, regardless of the numbers affected. Pet parrots are a known transmitter of the Chlamydia psittaci bacterium to humans. Elsewhere, bats and horses are also known sources of zoonotic diseases. In terms of common household pets, cats can act as a link to a number of fatal diseases. The experts explained: “Numbers of infections are low, but plague is endemic in 17 western U.S. states, and many of the small mammals on which cats prey carry Y. pestis. “Consequently, outdoor cats and cats with incomplete veterinary care, combined with human interaction, suggest that cat-transmitted plague can be considered an increasing public health risk.” They conclude that “it is critical to implement surveillance programs allowing us to track changes in pathogen dynamics”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

BASINGSTOKE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 13, 2023--

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The setbacks just keep coming for Twitter owner Elon Musk. After outages and daily view limits prompted users to flock to other platforms, and Mark Zuckerberg posted his first tweet in 11 years to savagely roast him, the individual behind the ‘Elon Jet’ account has set up a profile on rival app Threads. The text-based social network, run by Instagram, looks to build “an open, civil place for people to have conversations” and was released to the public on Thursday. As is to be expected, Musk isn’t exactly keen on Threads coming along and scooping up disgruntled Twitter users and has already criticised the app over the type of data it may collect from users. But if Zuckerberg isn’t enough of a headache for the businessman (the Tesla founder has challenged the Meta CEO to a cage fight), then a man who set up a Twitter account to track Musk’s private jet - in real-time, using publicly available data – setting up shop on Meta-managed Threads could well be. Jack Sweeney, who managed the account while studying at the University of Central Florida, soon angered Musk over the initiative, as he claimed the tweeting of public information was “becoming a security issue”. Unable to resist a dig at Musk on Threads, Sweeney created a Threads account on Thursday, with his second post (after the initial announcement) reading: “@Zuck will I be allowed to stay?” At the time of writing, @ElonMuskJet has more than 8,300 followers, and Zuckerberg is yet to comment. In January last year, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to take down the account, and when the then teenager got back to him asking for $50,000, the free speech “absolutist” went on to block him on Twitter. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Then, as talk continued to build of the tech mogul finally taking over the social media network, Sweeney tweeted in April that the move “doesn’t mean the end of ElonJet”, sharing links to the bot on other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Telegram. After buying Twitter in October – to the tune of $44bn – Musk took just two months to suspend the ‘ElonJet’ Twitter account, changing the platform’s rules to prohibit real-time location sharing. In a move which also saw several journalists temporarily banned, Musk tweeted in December: “Any account doxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.” Sweeney’s account was reinstated on the same day it was banned, with Musk making clear that sharing locations “on a slightly delayed basis” is OK as it “isn’t a safety problem”. It was relaunched as ‘ElonJet but Delayed’, with a 24-hour delay affecting tweets, and remains active on the platform to this day. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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