Mad Cow As to the phenomenon of mad cow if somebody may be considered mad, the one is undoubtedly man. In fact a cow isn’t certainly able to reason, while man has deliberately decided to turn a herbivore into a carnivore, even better into a cannibal, since he has fed a ruminant on the converted remains of creatures of its own species: hides, fats, collagen and muscular parts, the so called fleshings (Mad Cow).
The trans-species jump from the animal reserve (second part) MICROBIOLOGIC CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION Another example how man’s action can influence the spreading of epidemics is given to us by the history of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. When we think of such an enterprise, we are usually convinced it was possible only thanks to the military superiority of the old world inhabitants compared with the Aztecs and the Incas. This theory is true if we consider the Spaniards, besides their guns, brought, unconsciously, those that are called bacteriological weapons according to the modern terminology.
The trans-species jump from the animal reserve (first part) MICROBIOLOGIC CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION With the progress of civilization man invades new geographical areas which, till that moment, had been incontested dominion of other animal populations favouring this way the trans-species jump from the animal reserve to man.
Vital revolution and overpopulation Beginning from 1798, the year in which Edward Jenner published his results about vaccination against smallpox, a series of scientific victories over contagious diseases has taken place. Between 1877 and 1879 Louis Pasteur discovered the bacillus of corbuncle; in 1882 and 1883 Robert Koch the ones of tuberculosis and cholera.
Overpopulation, lack of hygiene and epidemics With the progress of civilization and the increasing of people to be fed man is increasingly looking for new areas to be cultivated. One of the means which is more within reach is cutting down the trees of tropical forests and burning them on the spot to get cultivable soil.
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