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Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

David Quammen (Goodreads Author)

4.39 · Rating details · 14,131 ratings · 1,728 reviews

Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit these diseases all originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In this gripping account, David Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge and asks the terrify ...more

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Paperback, 592 pages

Published September 9th 2013 by W. W. Norton Company (first published September 24th 2012)

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Start your review of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

Dec 02, 2014 carol. rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: fans of diseases, outbreaks, animals, public health, travel

Shelves: non-fiction, science, animals-and-people, medical

2020 Update: Well, here we go, 2020 Covid pandemic. Don't say David Quammen didn't tell you so. And check out the comments below from 2016. Highlights:

I thought the topic might give me heebie-jeebies, but it mostly didn't, except when it comes to traveling to China, Bangladesh or West Africa. Or working in a disease research lab.

and

I do think SARS was scary as a healthcare provider because it seemed to circumvent standard isolation and had a high fatality rate.

David Quammen is prescient. He appe ...more

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Mar 17, 2020 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, nonfiction, science

”’Spillover’ is the term used by disease ecologists to denote the moment when a pathogen passes from members of one species, as host, into members of another.”

How does that happen?

”All it required was a mango or water apple tree, laden with ripe fruit, overhanging a pigsty. An infected bat feeds on a water apple, discarding the pulp, which is besmeared with virus; the pulp drops down among the pigs; one pig snarfs it up and gets a good dose of virus; the virus replicates in that pig and pass ...more

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Aug 17, 2018 Petra-X is getting covered in Soufriere ash rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, animals-ethology, medicine-science, travel-adventure-countries, 2018-100-reviews

Update At first I thought this book was so relevant to the present coronavirus pandemic crisis in the world, but it's not really as the one thing the book doesn't discuss is what if an animal illness - a bat one, as so many are - is modified or experimented on in a laboratory and it infects a person, who then is patient zero and infects the world? The laboratory connection is not mentioned at all, and therefore the book is not so prescient as many people think, unless you subscribe to the wet ma ...more

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Mar 14, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 0-biology, 0-microbiology

I guess I won´t ever take a duck, bat, or cute little monkey as a pet after reading this book. Ok, the ape would be pretty illegal too.

A similar question I kept continually asking myself while reading this: Could it once spread to pets like dogs and cats and back to humans again who infect a bird that infects a bat that is eaten by a wild dog who bites a human etc. Isn´t that an endless circle with possible catastrophes around each corner, even without human intervention such as antibiotic resi ...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Tony rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-nature, top-10-2012

You have to understand. I have my phobias. So it makes for awkward social encounters. Like: “Mommy,” said the little girl in the elevator, “Why is that man holding his breath the whole way down from the 16th floor?” I have been known to say things like, “Will you please stop sneezing in the direction of my beer?” I went to a doctor’s office a few years ago. Nothing ultimately serious, but possibly so, so that I went for the quickly scheduled appointment even though I was already nursing a bad co ...more

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May 24, 2015 Hannah Greendale rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, science, adult, non-fiction

Click here to watch a video featuring this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.

...more

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Jan 29, 2015 HBalikov rated it it was amazing

"A zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. There are more such diseases than you might expect. AIDS is one. Influenza is a whole category of others. Pondering them as a group tends to reaffirm the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity IS a kind of animal, inextricably connected with other animals; in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health." This is what David Quammen preaches in Spillover: Animal Infections "A zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. There are more such diseases than you might expect. AIDS is one. Influenza is a whole category of others. Pondering them as a group tends to reaffirm the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity IS a kind of animal, inextricably connected with other animals; in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health." This is what David Quammen preaches in Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. Some have already given him credit for predicting the recent Ebola outbreak. If this sounds unappealing, it's my fault. Quammen is a researcher who writes with style and substance. He isn't the type who stays in his cubicle reviewing journals and online information. He is out in the field with his buddies and compatriots giving us a front line perspective on this serious issue.

To say this was an eye-opener for me probably understates its impact. I now think I know that every disease must have a reservoir. Smallpox basically resides in humans and is transmitted only among humans. Other diseases have either living or non-living reservoirs. Tetanus comes from a bacterium that resides in the soil. Cholera comes from a bacterium that resides in contaminated water. "A disease must have a portal of exit from the reservoir and a portal of entry into the host. This is how diseases are spread and new cases of infection occur. Examples of portals of exit are respiratory, the digestive tract, urinary, skin," etc. "Diseases can spread by three different, modes of transmission: contact transmission, vehicle transmission, and vector transmission." Let's remember the title of this book. Quammen is focused on "animal infections and the next human pandemic." A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide.

Quammen points out (and I am surprised as usual) that zoonosis isn't rare. In fact, "about 60 percent of all human infectious diseases currently known either cross routinely or have recently crossed between other animals and us...Ebola...bubonic plague...Spanish influenza...bovine tuberculosis, Lyme disease, West Nile fever...rabies, hanta virus pulmonary syndrome, antharx"...etc.

A lot of this book reads like a mystery. Some one or some thing has died unexpectedly and there is no immediate explanation for it. Quammen takes us along on these investigations. I came to like and respect this writer. He admires good science and points out with disdain efforts that fall short. His writing is intimate, filled with humor (often dark), and engaging.

"Most people aren't familiar with the word 'zoonotic,' but they have heard of SARS, they have heard of West Nile virus, they have heard of bird flu. They know someone who has suffered through Lyme disease and someone else who has died of AIDS. They have heard of Ebola, and they know that it's a very terrifying thing (though they may confuse it with E. coli, the bacterium that can kill you if you eat the wrong spinach). They are concerned. They are vaguely aware. But they don't have the time or the interest to consider a lot of scientific detail. I can say from experience that some people, if they hear you're writing a book about such things---about scary emerging diseases, about killer viruses, about pandemics---want you to cut to the chase. So they ask: 'Are we all gonna die?" I have made it my little policy to say yes."

Quammen is on the lookout for the "Next Big One." Some say his discussion of Ebola gives him a lot of "street cred." He states that few disagree that that Next Big One will be zoonotic. So it behooves us to understand what he is talking about. It's a longish book, but you can get a lot out of a little at a time.

I will leave you with a sample of how he passes on advice: " If your husband catches an ebola virus, give him food and water and love and maybe prayers but keep your distance, wait patiently, hope for the best — and, if he dies, don’t clean out his bowels by hand. Better to step back, blow a kiss and burn the hut.”

Given the reviews by my GR friends (including Greta, Max, carol, Jeanette, Hannah) and our current COVID-19 crisis, I thought a re-read would be beneficial. Was it ever! It was definitely worth reviewing zoonosis, pandemics, human behavior, and measures that can be taken. Quammen definitely deserves 5* ---and--- Do NOT Touch Your Face! ...more

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May 01, 2018 Max rated it really liked it

Shelves: biology

Quamman explores zoonotic diseases, infectious diseases caused by pathogens that “spillover” from animals to man. The pathogen may be a virus, bacteria or parasite. Zoonotic diseases include well known ones like Ebola, Lyme disease, SARS, and AIDS, lesser known ones like Hendra virus, Marburg virus and Q fever, and ones just being recognized as zoonotic such as some forms of malaria. Zoonotic diseases require a reservoir animal, an animal that sustains the virus without serious complications. Re Quamman explores zoonotic diseases, infectious diseases caused by pathogens that “spillover” from animals to man. The pathogen may be a virus, bacteria or parasite. Zoonotic diseases include well known ones like Ebola, Lyme disease, SARS, and AIDS, lesser known ones like Hendra virus, Marburg virus and Q fever, and ones just being recognized as zoonotic such as some forms of malaria. Zoonotic diseases require a reservoir animal, an animal that sustains the virus without serious complications. Reservoir animals feed a cycle of epidemics. The virus can be eliminated from all humans and still come back. Non-zoonotic infectious diseases like polio, smallpox and measles can be eradicated once the pathogen is eliminated from every human. Some non-zoonotic diseases may have originally jumped from an animal, for example measles from goats or sheep.

Zoonotic diseases may require a vector like a mosquito. A pathogen may jump from a bat or monkey to a human and then from human to human. Or it may jump to an intermediate animal that reproduces it in large quantities sufficient to infect humans. The reservoir animals for the Hendra virus are fruit bats, which pass it to horses, which are “amplifier” animals that pass it to humans. Fruit bats are suspected as the reservoir animal for Ebola. Gorillas and chimpanzees are susceptible to Ebola just like humans and many thousands have died from it. Outbreaks in humans have been caused by eating infected gorilla and chimpanzee meat.

It is important to consider the ecosystem of the animals and organisms involved in spreading infection. Lyme disease is a good example. Deer ticks infect humans and deer are often blamed as the reservoir but they are not. Adult ticks that feed off deer and humans fall off never to bite again. Both humans and deer are dead ends. They don’t spread the disease. Larval ticks feed off of small mammals such as shrews, chipmunks and particularly mice which are the reservoir animals for the Lyme disease bacterium. Larval ticks become infected from animals that have been bitten by infected nymphal ticks. To control the spread of the disease culling deer won’t work, the mice must be controlled, a near impossible task. The best way would be to encourage natural predators such as owls, foxes, weasels and the like. Unfortunately, woodlands today have been divided into ever smaller patches that don’t support these carnivores.

Zoonotic pathogens can be parasites, bacteria, DNA viruses or RNA viruses. RNA viruses like the flu, West Nile, Hendra, HIV and Ebola can quickly mutate turning into new infectious agents. Flu viruses are especially prone to reassortment, a process in which viruses of different subtypes exchange components creating new subtypes. Thus we regularly see new versions of the flu. Retroviruses like HIV are particularly sinister. HIV uses the invaded cell to turn its RNA into DNA which it inserts into the host cell’s DNA, producing more viruses and replicating every time the cell divides. There are a dozen variants of HIV in humans and each is believed to be the result of a separate spillover. Thus the Simian virus, SIV, spills over regularly to the human virus, HIV. While only the main variant of HIV is responsible for most deaths, a new dangerous one could cross over anytime. In contrast DNA viruses such as herpes viruses (only some zoonotic) self-correct errors in replication and have larger genomes. They cannot mutate so quickly and must be persistent in order to sustain themselves. A great example is the chickenpox virus (not zoonotic) that infects children causing an itchy rash. The virus remains after the rash is gone and ramps up late in life causing shingles. Transmission methods for viruses and other pathogens include airborne, oral-fecal (water and food contamination), blood-borne, sexual, vertical (mother to child), or the bite of an animal.

Modern animal husbandry densely packs large numbers of animals in close confinement. For example in the Netherlands dairy goats are housed in huge barns holding thousands of animals creating perfect conditions for the bacteria causing Q fever to grow. Q fever bacteria were spread everywhere when the infected manure was used to fertilize crops. When the fields dried out the wind picked up the loose soil. People downwind breathed in dust full of the highly contagious and lethal bacteria. SARS was spread in China from the markets that sold wild animals (some raised on farms) for food. The animals were crammed together and not cared for by the marketers. These conditions undermine their immune systems making it easier for the virus that had been held in check to spread. Another example is parrot fever carried particularly by parakeets and cockatoos that many breeders keep in close dirty confines allowing latent infections to erupt.

Statistical analysis can reveal the requirements for an epidemic. There must be a critical mass, a sufficient number of susceptible individuals in sufficient density. Then a virulent pathogen will quickly spread. But those who die and those who recover (now immune) are no longer susceptible. When the number and density of those susceptible falls too low the epidemic is over until the susceptible population is replenished, an endless cycle. Concentration and number of pathogens and their infection rate also have required parameters, different for each disease. A good analysis of these factors can predict which measures to control the outbreak will work and which won’t.

Quammen’s book consists largely of descriptions of outbreaks, each crafted as a detective story. People get sick, die and nobody understands it. Tenacious doctors, veterinarians and scientists come to investigate. Some work in labs identifying the pathogen. Others track the associations of the victims. Still others figure where to look for animal hosts, collect samples and get them to the labs. Quammen embellishes these stories with frightening descriptions of the disease spread and the victim’s plight. He details the many hurdles the investigators must overcome. Their aim is prevention. Too often there is little that can be done for the victims. After typically years of work and false leads they identify the reservoir animal and the means of transmission. It is a repetitive story and one doomed to repeat time and again.

As human population expands and encroaches on natural environments and as wild species adapt to human presence and expand into human habitat, we will see evermore spillover. The increasing number and density of both people and the animals they eat favor the spread of zoonotic diseases. Poor countries with limited resources are particularly prone to epidemics. Wherever disease breaks out, modern day frequent travel and extensive global supply chains can quickly spread it to distant locations. Quammen expresses particular concern about the flu virus given its ability to reassort potentially mixing highly infectious and lethal subtypes. But whether flu, HIV or something new we can be sure we will be facing many more epidemics. The good news is that modern science gives us many tools to contain these outbreaks. However, the current wave of science bashing, nationalism, politicizing and underfunding government agencies is troubling. We need the institutions defending us against communicable diseases such as the CDC and its counterparts to have the resources, science based direction and international cooperation that are essential to be vigilant and responsive. ...more

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Feb 26, 2020 Greta G rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Dr. Pol, VP Pence

Shelves: owned-in-english, pop-science, ebook, 500-plus-pages

Dr. Jan Pol is a practicing veterinarian in rural Michigan and the star of the National Geographic TV Series “The incredible Dr. Pol”.
He is also guilty of not meeting required minimum standards of veterinary care, and negligence. He doesn’t carry out surgery in a sterile environment, wear surgical gloves, a gown, a mask, and a cap during surgery.
I watched a few episodes and was appalled by what I saw, for instance during an assisted calving. He was probing with his bare arms in a cow’s birth c ...more

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Apr 18, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One does not need to be a science wiz to understand or enjoy this book.
Author David Quamman spills the beans on how disease spreads.

The original emergence of the virus ‘Hendra’, didn’t seem very dire or newsworthy unless you happened to live in eastern Australia.

In September 1994, a violent distress erupted among horses in a suburb at the north fringe of Brisbane.
The place itself is called Hendra.... a quiet neighborhood filled with
racecourses, racing people, weatherboard houses whose backy ...more

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Oct 09, 2013 Michael Perkins rated it it was amazing

Something important that got lost in the political dust storm in 2020 was the scientific need to act fast. The motto is "early detection, early action" No two of these zoonotic diseases are alike. No one knows how they will behave once they enter the human population. You err on the side of caution.

Something that has emerged lately is what is being called Long Covid, the chronic health problems people have after they get out of the hospital. (See links below)

==========

“Spillover” is the term us ...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Russ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Full disclosure first, I'm a fan of this type of non-fiction. Laurie Garret - The Coming Plague, Richard Preston - The Hot Zone, Randy Shilts - And the Band Played On... the list goes on and on. I love this stuff. But having said that, this is truly the best thing I've ever read on the subject of infectious agents spilling over from their host species into humans. Brilliant, readable and absolutely spell-binding, Quammen's description of mutation, illness and the effect of human encroachment int ...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Linda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

Disclamer: I received this book from the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program.

I'm very grateful that I did. I happen to be a physician, specializing in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. I work in an environment where epidemiology underlies everything I do. Therefore, I feel that I can give an especially educated evaluation of this book.

The first thing I would like to comment on is the cover. It's an eye-catching blurred photograph of a screaming mandrill. Everywhere I carried the book (wh Disclamer: I received this book from the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program.

I'm very grateful that I did. I happen to be a physician, specializing in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. I work in an environment where epidemiology underlies everything I do. Therefore, I feel that I can give an especially educated evaluation of this book.

The first thing I would like to comment on is the cover. It's an eye-catching blurred photograph of a screaming mandrill. Everywhere I carried the book (which is everywhere at work; I could not put it down) people looked at it and asked me what I was reading. Beautiful and suitable, the artwork sets the stage for the gripping narratives contained within.

This is a book written for the intellectually curious. Quammen, as a journalist, understands that some of the material covered in this book can be esoteric for those not trained in the subject. He explains complex subjects clearly, and this is the important part, does not condescend or dumb it down. This makes the content accessible to everyone who may be interested, and the material is fascinating.

As a public health physician, I thought I was fairly well-informed on the subject of zoonoses. I was delighted to find that this book is chock full of new, up-to-date information, and I had never even heard of some of the diseases he discussed. For example, I had though the reservoir for SARS was the civet cat. I had no idea that it was...well, you have to read the book. This book is as gripping and suspenseful as any thriller or mystery, and more terrifying, to boot, since this is non-fiction. As I am typing this, Hanta virus is affecting visitors to Yosemite National Park, Ebola is breaking out in Uganda and The Congo, and who knows what other mystery illnesses have yet to be identified and are lurking for the opportunity to breakout into the greater population.

David Quammen has a delightfully sardonic sense of humor, and as he spins his tales, backed with a tremendous amount of field work on his part, one feels as if they are right there in the field with him and the researchers collecting bat piss (yes, really) or strolling the Hong Kong markets, or munching on Bamboo Rat hot-pot (apparently mild and sweet, quite tasty).

I found myself reading the book like a good, no, excellent, novel. Normally with non-fiction, I pick it up and put it down in spurts. This book is so engrossing, though, that I found myself even walking down the street from the train station to work while reading this (a substantial hardcover, mind you). Quite a few of my co-workers want to read it, particularly the epidemiologists and physicians, but please don't hold back if you haven't got the background. This book is written so as to be accessible to anyone who has the interest. Everyone should be interested. The next big outbreak is inevitable because of human manipulation of climate, habitat and overcrowded conditions and intrusions into the wild, bringing us more and more in contact with potential pathogens. This book is a sobering look at the changing conditions in the world and how they leave us very, very vulnerable. This is easily the most frightening book I have read in a long, long time. Thank you, David for the work of love that produced this.

Note for Goodreads: the page count is wrong; please correct it. The correct page number is 520 pages of text, plus a long reference section. ...more

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Sep 28, 2013 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to David by: Tony

Shelves: biology, ecology, science, evolution

A "spillover" occurs when a microbe crosses over from an animal to humans, as an infectious disease. David Quammen describes many examples of this: SARS, ebola, HIV, influenza, marburg and hendra.

Each chapter is a detective story--scientists, veterinarians and medical researchers are detectives searching for the source of a disease. The source is usually a reservoir--an animal that carries the microbe, but is not usually harmed by the microbe.

And--now here's the best part--Quammen is not a stay A "spillover" occurs when a microbe crosses over from an animal to humans, as an infectious disease. David Quammen describes many examples of this: SARS, ebola, HIV, influenza, marburg and hendra.

Each chapter is a detective story--scientists, veterinarians and medical researchers are detectives searching for the source of a disease. The source is usually a reservoir--an animal that carries the microbe, but is not usually harmed by the microbe.

And--now here's the best part--Quammen is not a stay-at-home researcher. He visits the scientists and interviews them over extended periods of time. And better yet--he accompanies scientists on research expeditions all over the world, in search of the reservoirs for terrible diseases. Quammen describes, in detail, what it is like to hunt for elusive viruses in bats, chimpanzees, monkeys, and horses. Often, the researchers must take special precautions to avoid being infected themselves. Sometimes these precautions fail, with awful consequences.

Quammen investigates why spillovers occur when and where they do. It's a combination of ecology and evolution. A microbe is carried by an animal reservoir, and usually in equilibrium where the animal is unharmed. Then, some dramatic change to the environment occurs, usually it is caused by humans impinging on the local ecology. The microbe mutates and jumps either to a vector (like a mosquito or a rat) or directly to a human. Further mutations then allow the microbe to jump from one human to another, causing an epidemic.

Researchers agree that in the future, there will be lethal epidemics like AIDS and the influenza pandemic of 1918. Such epidemics are totally unpredictable, because of the diversity of human behavior.

David Quammen is an excellent writer--he has a wonderful style. It is obvious from his enthusiasm and from his extensive travels, that this book represents his life-long efforts. Spillover is a sequence of detective mysteries and adventure stories, all rolled up into one. I highly recommend it!
...more

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Mar 24, 2020 Lauren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2020, science, disease-illness, animals

I find solace in knowledge.
In research.
In science.
In realizing (again) that history is a teacher.

Reading a book about pandemics during a pandemic might not work for everyone, but I find comfort in realizing that shit has happened many many times before and it will happen again and again.

I like to remember that we, as humans, are animals, and no matter what we do, we are not infallible.

Our own hubris is and always will be our biggest downfall.

I like to remember that science and research can sav ...more

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May 26, 2020 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: physically-owned, non-fiction

Might be beating a dead horse—or preferably not, considering the horse-borne Hendra virus that kickstarts this book—to sing my praises now for Quammen’s masterwork. An investigation into zoonoses (i.e., animals’ diseases that jump into humans), hitting all the big names from bloody Ebola to body-ravaging HIV and AIDS, Spillover also prioritises the narrative impulse over the encyclopedic, laying down each disease’s fascinating story but moreover tying them all together into a larger and frankly ...more

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Apr 25, 2020 Olive Fellows (abookolive) rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, animals

See my review on Booktube. ...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Parker F rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book was an exciting and informative tour of zoonotic diseases, but the fragmented style diminished my enjoyment. Quammen practices an annoying form of gonzo journalism in which he needlessly inserts himself into the narrative because he is too lazy to do otherwise.

There are numerous throwaway chapters that are included for no other reason than because Quammen made a trip or did the interview. For instance, many pages are devoted to the unenlightening tale of a scientist who accidentally p This book was an exciting and informative tour of zoonotic diseases, but the fragmented style diminished my enjoyment. Quammen practices an annoying form of gonzo journalism in which he needlessly inserts himself into the narrative because he is too lazy to do otherwise.

There are numerous throwaway chapters that are included for no other reason than because Quammen made a trip or did the interview. For instance, many pages are devoted to the unenlightening tale of a scientist who accidentally pricks herself with an Ebola-carrying needle. We learn of this woman's childhood, educational background, family life, the cleanliness of her home, etc. We learn of the boredom of her long quarantine and how she and her friends shared unfunny jokes via email about how her quarantine diet is high calorie. One may think that Quammen is building up to some sort of cliffhanger in which this poor woman ends up showing Ebola symptoms, but it is clear from the start (as he describes his visit to her house and the interview) that this didn't happen. This whole ordeal could have been omitted or replaced with one sentence, but Quammen must feel that every interview he conducts deserves many pages of text. (After a few minutes of reflection, I now realize the author's intent with this Ebola-quarantine section. He is de-sensationalizing Ebola by telling a tale of potential laboratory-borne infection completely lacking any excitement or exploding bodies, in stark contrast to THE HOT ZONE.)

While these aren't direct quotes, the book is strewn with needless editorializing along the lines of "I think the guy who first discovered the cause of malaria is one cool dude," and there are way too many one word sentences like "Boring" or "Neato." Seriously.

Worst of all, near the end of the book Quammen takes a novelistic turn and tells an entirely fictional account of a patient zero carrying AIDS from the jungle of central Africa into the city. While this perhaps is demonstrating a plausible scenario for the first cases of human to human transmission of the virus, the level of trivial detail is infuriating. Should we applaud Quammen for so humanizing his fictional character and eagerly await the publication of his first novel? Or should we be upset that so many pages of a 700 page book are wasted on an Introduction-to-Creative-Writing-quality novella?

Nonetheless, most of the book is enthralling. But I dread the approaching day in which all journalistic nonfiction will be told in this short-attention-span, MTV-News-inspired format. ...more

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Jun 13, 2020 Woman Reading rated it liked it

Shelves: nfbc-botm-and-br, 3-and-half-stars-worthwhile-read, nf-medical-and-science, nonfiction-2020-challenge

3.5 ☆
If you're a thriving population, living at high density but exposed to new bugs, it's just a matter of time until the NBO arrives.

Published in 2012, Quammen's Spillover updated and built upon Garrett's work in The Coming Plague, which was released 18 years earlier. His primary concern is the same as Garrett's, and that is the inevitable arrival of the Next Big One (or NBO).

Zoonotic pathogens can hide. That's what make them ... so complicated, so problematic.
Ecological disturbance

...more

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Nov 09, 2018 Anna rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Anna by: carol.

Shelves: science, favourites, favourites-in-2018, 2018-aty-in-52-books

This is informative, interesting and entertaining. Parts of it read as a detective story, as the author describes the quest to identify pathogens, and the routes that can lead those pathogens to cause human disease. The approach encompasses the ecological as well as the evolutionary factors that lead to zoonotic diseases.
As I read, I took copious quotes from every chapter. As David Quammen says it much better than I can, I am going to copy some of them here. I will use spoiler tags for my summar ...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Rebecca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-for-nudge, science-tech, nature, current-events

This exposé of zoonoses (diseases passed from animals to humans) is top-notch scientific journalism: pacey, well-structured and entirely gripping. Although it’s a rather sobering topic, this is not scare-mongering for the sake of it; indeed, Quammen frankly concludes that we are much more likely to die of heart disease or fatal car crashes: “Yes, we are all gonna die. Yes. We are all gonna pay taxes and we are all gonna die. Most of us, though, will probably die of something much more mundane th ...more

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Mar 06, 2020 Whitney rated it it was amazing

Overall: This book is an absolute masterpiece. Epic in scope, brilliant in how it is all connected, very relevant to today, and extremely eye opening and illuminating. Not an easy read but absolutely worth it! 10/10

Summary:
“When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis.”
Much of this story is detailing Quammen's adventures and research following vario Overall: This book is an absolute masterpiece. Epic in scope, brilliant in how it is all connected, very relevant to today, and extremely eye opening and illuminating. Not an easy read but absolutely worth it! 10/10

Summary:
“When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis.”
Much of this story is detailing Quammen's adventures and research following various zoonosis around the world.
Fun fact: Historically, some 60 percent of the infections that plague humankind, from influenza to H.I.V. and bubonic plague, all originated in the bodies of other animals.
This book is neatly divided into sections based around a certain zoonosis or a group of similar ones. Each section is a meticulous telling of the origin, history, pertinent findings and research, development, and current state of these various zoonotic diseases.
Take home message: eat more plants and chocolate!

Note: though this book is all about zoonosis it should not cause the reader to panic or be scared about them. “Spillover” hardly touches on such pandemic-worthy animal pathogens as avian flu or multi-drug-resistant bacteria, rather, it fully describes the unfolding convergence between veterinary science and human medicine, and how veterinary-minded medical experts discover and track diseases that spread across species. “Spillover” is less public health warning than ecological affirmation: these crossovers force us to uphold “the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal” — with a shared fate on the planet. “People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses,” Quammen writes. “We’re all in this together.”

The Good: I loved this book! Granted it is a subject I am very interested in but I listened to it with my husband who has no medical or animal background, and he immensely enjoyed it as well. The storytelling is amazing, it really does read like a narrative and I felt swept away at many points that I had to remind myself this was nonfiction. Another major positive is the scope. This book has SO MUCH information and yes, you absolutely have to pay attention, but the author does a great job at bringing everything together and explaining difficult to understand topics. It is a blend of science, history, ecology, anthropology, immunology, research, and all presented cohesively in a narrative that grips you with every chapter. My favorite section of all was Ebola. Overall, this book is phenomenal, very relevant to current events, and I learned so much while listening to it. Highly recommend.

The Bad: There were a few chapters in the section on AIDS that the author was speculating and theorizing that I was not a fan of. I preferred the remainder of the book which was all based on facts and science that I found these few chapters distracting and out of place. Some sections are dense in material that you really do need to be paying attention in order to keep up. I found this to be a positive though as I really learned a lot while reading this book.

Favorite Quotes:
“Make no mistake, they are connected, these disease outbreaks coming one after another. And they are not simply happening to us; they represent the unintended results of things we are doing. They reflect the convergence of two forms of crisis on our planet. The first crisis is ecological, the second is medical.”

“Our findings highlight the critical need for health monitoring and identification of new, potentially zoonotic pathogens in wildlife populations, as a forecast measure for EIDs.” That sounds reasonable: Let’s keep an eye on wild creatures. As we besiege them, as we corner them, as we exterminate them and eat them, we’re getting their diseases.”

“People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses: We’re all in this together.”

“Disappointment, in science, is sometimes a gateway to insight.” ...more

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Apr 18, 2020 Mehrsa rated it it was amazing

I came here to understand Sars/Covid, but I learned a whole lot more! It's a fascinating book with so much rich information. And then a kicker at the end--maybe we humans are the pandemic. ...more

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Nov 20, 2013 Clouds rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014, 5-star, reviewed, science, cup-of-tea

Pure class from beginning to end - the best science journalism I've read.

It was completely coincidental that I read this just before the 2014 Ebola outbreak... but that did sort of reinforce why this is essential reading!

Plenty of other goodreads reviews have given superb summaries of the content of the novel, so I'll only touch on that briefly - but here's why I personally loved it:

I originally put this on my long-list as research reading. There's a novel I want to write (one day!) that is set ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Emma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

Spillover is popular science written by a master storyteller, a book that reads like a pre-emptive 'I told you so'. There are sections which are as compulsively page-turning as thrillers, eyes glued to the page as you watch the desperate race to understand and contain the spread of assorted deadly viruses. It is all so horrifyingly relevant. Easily the best book I've read on pandemics, both entertaining and informative. It has me convinced that the worst is yet to come.

ARC via Netgalley ...more

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Nov 14, 2012 reading is my hustle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nature-science, non-fiction-general, journalism-current-events, animals

Is it possible to "really like" a book like this? I think I may have shortchanged this book with the three star rating. Hmmm.

But I digress.

It is official- I now know too much. Most of us have probably spent some amount of time thinking about a pandemic. How could we not? Reading this book will not ease said fears. It is unsettling to read how easy it is for an infection to *spillover* (sorry) from animal to human. This book reveals just how easy it is and gives you enough information to scare t ...more

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Apr 08, 2020 Camelia Rose rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: life-science, science, favorites

"When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis." The event of such leap is a spillover.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic is a well-researched book. David Quammen is not an armchair researcher. He visits scientists and doctors allover the world, from Africa, Australia to Southeast Asia, and takes part in the actual field work. T "When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis." The event of such leap is a spillover.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic is a well-researched book. David Quammen is not an armchair researcher. He visits scientists and doctors allover the world, from Africa, Australia to Southeast Asia, and takes part in the actual field work. The writing is rich and dotted with humor.

The diseases covered in the book include Hendra (horse measles), Ebola, SARS, Malaria, Nipah Virus, HIV (mostly HIV-1), Influenza, and many more. Scientific concepts such as "reservoir" and "amplifier" are explained well. He also explains how RNA virus and retrovirus work and why they behave the way they do. A lot of investigation journalism too. The 100 pages chapter about HIV reads like a very engaging detective story.

A few fun facts (yes I think science is fun, even it is about infectious diseases):
1. "Deer tick" is misleading, as deer is a reservoir but not the most popular reservoir of Lyme Disease. The white-footed mouse is, followed by chipmunks and shrews.
2. A Malaria bug was used to treat a type of late stage of syphilis but also gave the usually mild bug a chance to become deadly.
3. Bats are the most popular reservoir
4. It is almost impossible to eradicate a zoonotic disease because they have a natural animal reservoir. Smallpox is not zoonosis (meaning only in humans) therefore it has been eradicated.

What strikes me most is that the NBO (the Next Big One, i.e. the next deadly pandemic disease) is inevitable. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Ecology plays a crucial part in the happening of spillover events. Human population explosion, the destroy of animal habitat and the proximity between wild animals and human all make such events inevitable. "Human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading those pathogens ever more widely and quickly." However, the inevitability does not mean we are helpless. It all depends how we react.

Is the current Covid-19 pandemic the Next Big One? Probably not, because its mortality rate is not as high as the last big one, 1918-1919 influenza, but history will tell. ...more

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Oct 11, 2020 GoldGato rated it really liked it

Shelves: catastrophe, science, non-fiction, nature, summer, health

Hendra is a virus. It made its first known appearance in 1994, killing seven horses in less than twelve hours. It also killed the human trainer who tried to help the dying horses. Eventually, the Hendra Virus was traced to flying foxes and their droppings, which happened to fall upon horses taking shade under trees sheltering the virus-shedding bats.

A zoonotic disease spills over into humans from a nonhuman animal. There are six types of spillover pathogens:

1. Viruses (Flu, HIV, Covid-19)
2. Bact ...more

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Jun 02, 2020 Ctgt rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Ctgt by: carol.

They remind us, as St. Francis did, that we humans are inseparable from the natural world. In fact, there is no “natural world,” it’s a bad and artificial phrase. There is only the world. Humankind is part of that world, as are the ebolaviruses, as are the influenzas and the HIVs, as are Nipah and Hendra and SARS, as are chimpanzees and bats and palm civits and bar-headed geese, as is the next murderous virus-the one we haven’t yet detected.

Informative and enlightening. And you don't need to be ...more

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May 27, 2014 Nicky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science-fact

I found this book fascinating. When I originally got it out of the library, some of my friends were a biiiit concerned that given my GAD was health-focused, this would just make me have a panic attack. I'm happy to report that I was simply happily curious, digging around with great enthusiasm, stopping to google things, etc.

In terms of the level this is at, it's perfectly comprehensible to anyone, I would say. Granted, I do have a background in reading plenty of popular science, an A Level in bi I found this book fascinating. When I originally got it out of the library, some of my friends were a biiiit concerned that given my GAD was health-focused, this would just make me have a panic attack. I'm happy to report that I was simply happily curious, digging around with great enthusiasm, stopping to google things, etc.

In terms of the level this is at, it's perfectly comprehensible to anyone, I would say. Granted, I do have a background in reading plenty of popular science, an A Level in biology, and various science/medical courses online, but I don't think that puts me much above the layman, really. Where something needs explaining, Quammen does so quite clearly. (Although if you do find this fascinating but a bit dense for you, this course on Coursera might be worth a look the next time it runs. I enjoyed it, anyway.)

So, granted I already find this topic fascinating, but I think this was a good read. It avoided sensationalism, aside from the couple of chapters where Quammen imagined the life of the Cut Hunter from the cut-hunter theory of the origin of HIV, which were a little much for me. That goes beyond adding a bit of human interest into a flight of fancy, which jars with the rest of the book. If you want to think delightedly of Ebola victims as being a sack of liquefied matter, I gather you want to read The Hot Zone (Richard Preston).

It's well-structured, taking us through various different zoonotic pathogens and their implications. The search for the "Next Big One" (the next pandemic) isn't the primary focus, despite the title, and instead Quammen focuses on how the diseases are tracked, particularly how they are tracked to the reservoir species that safely harbour the pathogens until they spill over into other species. It's not hysterical about the fact that there will be another pandemic, but treats it in a matter of fact way. Of course there'll be another pandemic: we're overcrowded, highly connected, highly social, and fairly careless.

I know there are people out there who will be complaining about Quammen's bias when he notes that we are, to a great extent, making the problem worse. We destroy habitats, bring animals into closer contact with us, and thus bring ourselves into closer contact with their pathogens, which may spill over into humans. Not biased, and not hard to understand, just a fact. ...more

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About David Quammen

David Quammen

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David Quammen (born February 1948) is an award-winning science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review; he has also written fiction. He wrote a column called "Natural Acts" for Outside magazine for fifteen years. Quammen lives in Bozeman, Montana. ...more

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“Make no mistake, they are connected, these disease outbreaks coming one after another. And they are not simply happening to us; they represent the unintended results of things we are doing. They reflect the convergence of two forms of crisis on our planet. The first crisis is ecological, the second is medical.” — 17 likes

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