Amid tainted food outbreaks, disease spread swept up in changing weather patterns

News headlines about tainted food this summer might have Minnesotans thinking twice about what they eat.

Public health experts said states can better prepare for future illness outbreaks by keeping a sharp eye on climate change. It is not just federal policy and budget decisions overshadowing the tracking of pathogens by state-level partners.

Erika Austhof, assistant research professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona, joined a panel discussion this week to highlight the role changing weather patterns play. She pointed out conditions like extreme rain and drought have a hand in whether a pathogen thrives, winding up in places like soil and animal operations.

"With climate change, they illustrate the same broader principle. Climate affects environmental conditions, environmental conditions affect pathogen persistence and movement, and those changes can alter human exposure," Austhof explained.

Austhof warned if a disease-causing parasite makes its way into a large farming operation and it floods, runoff from those fields can be transported into nearby waterways, adding public health and agricultural entities should factor in climate information when assessing future food safety threats.

Researchers like Austhof also are paying attention to how wildlife activities, like bird migrations, overlap with climate change and elevated disease risks.

"Climate change can change the map of infectious disease risks, not only because the pathogens respond to weather but because the animals and ecosystems that interact with those pathogens are also changing too," Austhof observed.

Austhof noted gradual shifts in temperature and precipitation affect where birds migrate or stop over and more of them could be hanging around crop fields and food production settings.

Minnesota's Climate Action Framework includes language to reduce farm runoff to avoid some scenarios but a new legislative audit of a water quality program found the state was certifying farmers before they fully met standards.

The framework does mention monitoring disease patterns to detect climate change influences.