State Vet: Food not a factor in Coronavirus transmission
State Veterinarian Keith Roehr is repeating the message of state and national food producers that the coronavirus and resulting COVID-19 illness are NOT food-borne.
The Colorado Beef Council has said it has learned that some anti-meat advocates are pointing at beef and animal food products as part of the problem.
Roehr says he’s read what other scientists are learning about coronavirus and it’s connection to food.
Roehr: “ They felt that indirect exposure through external packaging or through other means of transmission probably will not play a very important role going forward. Most of this is human to human transmission and aerosol. There’s some understanding the viruses can live in nature for a period of time but relative to the food system, I saw another update from the FDA that basically said the same thing that indirect exposure to food or food items they felt at this time was not playing a significant role.”
Scientists writing the medical Journal Lancet say they believe bats were likely the original host. It’s also possible, according to the same study, that the virus was transferred from a bat to another animal before being transferred to a human. The idea that it was man-made in a laboratory in China has also been debunked.
