The Chickens Fight Back. David Waltner-Toews

If you have any interest at all in epidemiology, modern medicine, or the survival of the human race, do read The Chickens Fight Back —Georgia Straight Emerging diseases like mad cow, SARS, and avian flu are — for the moment, at least — far more prevalent in animals than in humans. Still, the knowledge that measles, TB, and smallpox were at one time “emerging” diseases that eventually made a permanent, and quite deadly, jump to humans gives epidemiologists pause. This book examines the various groups of animal diseases, explains what attracts them to the human population — from food to sex to living conditions — and offers suggestions for keeping them at bay. It also points out that diseases must be looked at from an ecological, cultural, and economic point of view as well as from a biological standpoint. Cooking meat till its well done and slathering on insect repellent for a hike in the woods are effective preventative measures, but as the author notes, it’s more important to fundamentally rethink humankind’s place in the world.