H5N2 Bird Flu Case Highlights Risk Of Intensive Farming

Officials say the risk to the public is low but this isn’t just a one-off warning sign. It’s part of a much bigger pattern.

Factory farming is fuelling this crisis

Every year, billions of animals are raised in cramped, filthy sheds in the name of cheap meat. Chickens, pigs and other animals are packed together in conditions so stressful and unhygienic that disease spreads like wildfire. Viruses mutate more quickly. And the chances of a new strain spilling over to people only increases.

Bird flu is one of the clearest examples. It’s already led to the deaths of millions of birds in the UK alone - either from the virus itself or because of mass culling. That’s not a long-term solution. It’s damage control.

As Annie Evans, our UK Farming Campaign Delivery Manager, says:

Novel epizootics are baked-in to the logic of intensive factory farming. On factory farms, millions of sentient animals are confined indoors in abysmal conditions. They are forced to stand in their own waste, cramped together, with barely enough room to move. This cruel system makes it inevitable that we will constantly be battling emerging diseases.

To mitigate the catastrophic impact on both animal and human health, the only sustainable solution is to transition to farming systems that prioritise higher welfare and align with the animals' natural habitats.

This case in Mexico isn’t just about one farm, or one country. Whether it’s industrial sheds or live animal markets, keeping animals in overcrowded, unnatural conditions puts us all at risk and fuels unimaginable animal cruelty.

Factory farming doesn't just cause pain and suffering - it’s dangerous, too.

If we want to prevent the next pandemic, we need to stop the conditions that give these diseases the perfect environment to thrive. That means ending factory farming, supporting higher-welfare systems, and rethinking the way we treat animals altogether.

Because protecting animals protects us too.