Animal viruses can infect people who prepare meat with unpleasant skin diseases, such as contagious pustular dermatitis.44 There’s even a well-defined medical condition commonly known as “butchers’ warts” that affects the hands of those who handle fresh meat, including poultry and fish.45 Even the wives of butchers appear to be at higher risk for cervical cancer, a cancer definitively associated with wart-virus exposure.
