Chapter Summary Of 'Lethal Gift Of Livestock'

Chapter 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
The overall point of this chapter was to discuss the connection between livestock and crops to germs and diseases. Many infections that have nearly wiped out humanity, are sourced back to animals. Farmers have had increased exposure to such diseases, as they are constantly working with animals, such as pigs, cows, et cetera.
Diamond begins to explain the ways in which people try to fight off the diseases, including developing a fever, mobilizing our immune system, or slower defensive responses, like changing our gene frequencies. When the body raises its body temperature, it’s to bake the germs to death, so the disease doesn’t spread any further. When trying, to mobilize the immune system, while blood cells and other cells will find and kill foreign microbes, and try to stop the disease. There are also slower defensive responses, which includes natural selection. Natural selection changes our gene frequencies from each generation to the next. Some people seem to be genetically resistant for almost any disease, and that’s due to natural selection. …show more content…
When Europeans exposed the Native Americans to such diseases, they were completely wiped out because they had never been able to grow a resistance to them, while the Europeans had. The Native Americans had no antibodies to fight against the microbe that had been brought in by the outsiders.
Diseases represent evolution in progress, because microbes are able to adapt by natural selection to new hosts and vectors. The microbe must adapt to that new environment and evolve new ways to live and propagate itself. In several cases, doctors or veterinarians had actually been able to observe microbes

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