DEAR READERS: The highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus is the genie in the bottle of CAFOs (concentrated animal feed operations) around the world. And now, it has been released and is spreading, impacting egg, poultry and dairy production. It is also killing all manner of wildlife, both terrestrial and aquatic, and may mutate and infect pigs next -- and potentially millions of people.

Over 995 dairy cow herds and at least 70 humans have been affected so far, including cases of severe disease and the first reported H5N1-related death in the U.S. (For details, see sciencedirect.com.) In a Bluesky thread accompanying her interview on “60 Minutes,” virologist Angela Rasmussen argues that if H5N1 bird flu becomes a pandemic in humans, it could be more deadly than the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly if U.S. government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are stripped of funding.

As the deadly pathogen rips through dairy herds and poultry flocks, more than 100 federal scientists who track bird flu, including vaccine and food safety experts, have been laid off by Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. This egregious mistake should be immediately rectified.

Considering the prohibitively expensive measures of implementing effective biosecurity for all CAFOs (including fur farms), as well as these facilities' significant contributions to climate change and the suffering of confined and crowded animals, they should be phased out. This was detailed in my book “Agricide: The Hidden Farm and Food Crisis That Affects Us All” back in 1986, and many other voices have spoken out against CAFOs in the decades since. Now is the time of reckoning.

My newest book, “One Health: Veterinary, Ethical and Environmental Perspectives,” provides documentation of why the operators of CAFOs should rapidly transition to more humane and ecologically sound animal husbandry practices, backed by consumers changing their dietary choices.

BEES DISAPPEARING AGAIN IN NORTH AMERICA

An April 16 New York Times article by Ivan Penn, entitled “The Bees Are Disappearing Again,” mentions many factors causing bee colony collapse. This is a major concern, since bees pollinate about 100 food plants upon which we rely. But one contributing factor to the demise of bees and other insects that was not mentioned in this article is the impact of nonionizing radiation from telecommunications systems and orbiting satellites.

Honeybees can detect the Earth’s magnetic field using iron granules in the abdomen that serve as magnetoreceptors. (See the study "Magnetic Sensing Through the Abdomen of the Honey Bee" by Chao-Hung Liang et al., published in Scientific Reports in 2016.) Studies have shown that long-term exposure to certain frequencies, like those used in Wi-Fi, can impair a honeybee’s ability to find its way back to the hive. This could potentially impact foraging and colony productivity, communication, navigation and larval brood development. (For details, see beeculture.com/electromagnetic-radiation-part-1.)

The documented global decline of other insects that provide vital ecological services and food for other species warrants international attention, with closer consideration of the impact of nonionizing radiation from telecommunications systems. (See the study "Electromagnetic radiation as an emerging driver factor for the decline of insects" by Alfonso Balmori, published in Science of the Total Environment in 2021.)

This decline in insects may well be linked with the recently documented decline in birds in many parts of the U.S. (See the study "North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant" by Alison Johnston et al., published in Science in 2025.)

PANDEMIC TREATY FINALLY COMES TO FRUITION

From Nature.com:

"Members of the World Health Organization have finalized the first global pandemic accord -- a series of measures to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics. The treaty -- three years in the making -- lays out the broad outline of a ‘pathogen access and benefit sharing’ system, which grants pharmaceutical companies access to scientific data such as pathogen samples in return for more equitable sharing of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics during a pandemic."

President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the negotiations, leaving “a gaping hole,” said health law and policy scholar Lawrence Gostin. But ironically, it might have made the agreement easier to reach: “This is the world reacting to Donald Trump, determined to show that multilateralism and global solidarity still are important, as well as the rule of law.” (See the article at nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00839-0.)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: I appreciated what you wrote in your column about the late Pope Francis. As a non-Catholic, I was amazed at how many hundreds of thousands of people from around the world came to his funeral. Please say more about his message and why so many people respected all that he stood for, especially caring for the poor and for immigrants. -- D.M.C., Cleveland, Ohio

DEAR D.M.C.: In his address to the joint Houses of Congress in 2015, Pope Francis called for “a culture of care to address poverty and protect nature.” In his encyclical “Laudato Si,” he spoke out against the “tyranny of anthropocentrism” -- human-centeredness. He was the embodiment of compassion, not just for the poor and for immigrants, but for all sentient beings and the environment. If we are to ever see world peace and save the last of the wild, we must enable all children to acquire such compassion.

This is detailed in the last chapter of my book "One Health," and is likely to face increasing opposition from the Trump administration. Politics without compassion is as dangerous as science and technology without ethics, and religion without ecumenicism.

One case in point is this April post from BecketFund.org:

“A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies asked a federal court ... to stop the U.S. government from handing over their sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant as early as June 16, 2025. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year refused to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever. ... The emergency appeal comes after the government announced last week it will forge ahead with the transfer even though the case is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Since time immemorial, Western Apaches and other Native peoples have gathered at Oak Flat, outside of present-day Superior, Arizona, for sacred religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Known in Apache as Chi’chil Bildagoteel, Oak Flat is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has been protected from mining and other harmful practices for decades.”

Only that which is sacred is secure. Civil society must take action to protect all that makes us human, and that keeps the Earth alive, from the tyranny of human-centered materialism. The late James Parks Morton, Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, said, “Ecology is the science of the body of Christ through which we of the Earth community learn our sacred connections.”

I believe that the many crises we are facing today are a call to a spiritual awakening -- one that Christians might call the second coming, and Buddhists might call enlightenment. The conflicts within the male-dominated Vatican over birth control, homosexuality, and women’s rights and ordination can be resolved by the just and compassionate Christian, and by secular civil society embracing everyone -- in other words, equalitarianism! Just as prejudice creates division, so enmity creates enemies. But amity creates friendship, goodwill and peaceful relations.

The nature of life and the nature of love are enantiomorphic and multidimensional. As one life gives to another, so one life takes another, thus sustaining the delicate matrix of planetary existence: the harmonic balance of creation and destruction on which we all depend. Our industrial civilization is out of balance, which we must all address.

AUTHORS OF INFLUENTIAL CLIMATE REPORT FIRED

The almost-400 authors of a U.S. report that outlines how federal and local governments can best deal with the effects of climate change have been fired. The contributors to the sixth National Climate Assessment, a report mandated by Congress, received an email saying that the body was under review.

The next assessment was due to be published in 2028. Previous reports have shown the increasing costs of climate change to U.S. citizens -- in the forms of insurance premiums, food prices and medical fees. For details, see reuters.com/sustainability/cop/trump-administration-dismisses-all-authors-key-climate-report-email-says-2025-04-28.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: In a recent committee hearing, House of Representatives bill 1897, which proposes amendments to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), was reviewed, alongside Rep. Lauren Boebert’s anti-wolf bill, H.R. 845. This coordinated effort underscores the relentless push by extremists to undermine environmental and conservation efforts.

Gray wolves and grizzly bears are being slaughtered by trophy hunters and cattle ranchers, while fragile natural habitats are being decimated by corporate-driven climate change and industrial exploitation. The ESA has been a vital lifeline of defense, shielding these helpless creatures from outside forces threatening their survival. Without it, thousands of vulnerable animals and plants would lose these critical safeguards.

President Trump has nominated Brian Nesvik, well-known for his extreme record on wildlife issues, to run the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for enforcing the ESA. Trump also revived the God Squad -- "a seldom-used committee" that can "approve federal projects even if (that approval) leads to the extinction of a species otherwise protected by the Endangered Species Act," according to the Associated Press. This committee would essentially have the power to override the ESA to prioritize destructive fossil fuel projects.

The worldview of Trump’s mammonist regime is to reduce everything to a monetary value, be it health care, medical research and other federal public services being cut by DOGE, or the profits from logging old-growth forests and mining federal lands. The environmental costs never factor into his calculus.

DEAR DR. FOX: On behalf of the American Veterinary One Health Society, we are pleased to make you a 2025 Honorary Diplomate awardee for your years of contributing to the advancement of One Health. -- John Poppe, Executive Director, American Veterinary One Health Society (avohsociety.org)

DEAR DR. POPPE: I feel honored to be a veterinarian and to receive this award. I am proud to belong to a profession that is advocating for One Health -- addressing animal rights, animal health, and animal and environmental protection -- and serving the common good and the good of the commons. My new book on the topic, “One Health: Veterinary, Ethical and Environmental Perspectives,” is now available.

I wish all veterinarians would join and support the American Veterinary One Health Society. The group is reaching out internationally to promote initiatives that provide hope in these difficult times to improve the health and well-being of millions of people and other species suffering from disease and environmental degradation.

Since childhood, I felt there was an urgent need to restore our existential responsibilities for animals, nature and each other. I was fortunate to win a scholarship to pay for my veterinary education in the U.K., subsequently earning doctoral degrees from the University of London.

I wish there were greater public and political recognition of the pivotal role of the veterinary profession in contributing to public health and to the economy, as well as improving the mental health of animal lovers and building support for animal caregivers and conservationists around the world. These tasks are crucial as we face the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, species extinction and emerging diseases of animal origin.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)