VOA标准英语2011--Growing Global Appetite for Meat, Milk P

The race to meet the world's growing appetite for animal products may increase the risk of both human and animal diseases, according to experts, who urge policymakers to consider health implications along with the need to boost production.
As the human population has grown and become wealthier, the demand for high-quality animal protein has skyrocketed.
For example, from 1990 to 2005, Asia alone added roughly one billion humans, but 10 billion chickens, according to UN figures.
Farmers are raising more animals in smaller spaces than in the past and in places that have not been used this way before, like in virgin¹ forests or near-dense urban environments. And this intensification² is often taking place in poor conditions and with few regulations, according to animal disease expert Delia Grace from the International Livestock³ Research Institute.
"You can get conditions which actually have never been experienced during the time of animal intensification in the West, or anywhere else in the world," says Grace. "And these kinds of completely novel conditions are giving rise to novel diseases."
According to Grace, most of those novel diseases do not cause a great deal of harm. But some do. A recent example is the H5N1 avian influenza⁴, also known as bird flu. More than 300 people have died from it to date, and the virus continues to circulate, killing⁵ one person in Cambodia this year. However, one good thing has come out of the experience.
"Avian influenza has been something which has made people certainly re-think certainly the interdependence between animal health and human health," says Grace.
She believes policymakers need to consider both human and animal health impacts because an estimated 700 million people in the developing world keep farm animals, which provide up to 40 percent of household income.
While animal diseases can pose a threat to human health, controlling them can pose an economic threat, if not done properly. As an example, Grace points to calls from some public health officials to eliminate backyard poultry⁶ flocks in response to avian influenza outbreaks.
"It's a call from public health without thinking of poor people's livelihoods," she says.
There are good examples of public health measures that protect incomes at the same time. In a new report, Grace highlights how Kenya changed regulations calling for all milk to be pasteurized - a requirement that would have put small producers out of business.
"Smallholder milk production was incredibly important as a pathway out of poverty. And also that the health risks could be avoided not by banning or arresting these traders, but by giving them training and certification and some simple technology so that they could handle milk more safely."
Grace says as the pressure to intensify⁷ livestock production increases in response to growing demand, policymakers will need to carefully balance public health, animal health, and economic health.

1 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

2 intensification   

n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚

参考例句：

• The intensification of the immunological response represents the body's natural defense. 增强免疫反应代表身体的自然保卫。 来自辞典例句
• Agriculture in the developing nations is not irreversibly committed, to a particular pattern of intensification. 发展中国家的农业并没有完全为某种集约化形式所束缚。 来自辞典例句

3 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

4 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

5 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

7 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。