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Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic Hardcover – October 1, 2012

by David Quammen (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 4,765 ratings
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A Booklist Top 10 Science Book of 2012, a 2012 New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and a Daily Beast "Top 11 Book of 2012"

A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerging human diseases.

The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia―but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world. He recounts adventures in the field―netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo―with the world’s leading disease scientists. In Spillover Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?
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  1. Print length
    592 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393066800
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393066807
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Exemplary science writer Quammen schools us in the fascinating if alarming facts about zoonotic diseases, animal infections that sicken humans, such as rabies, Ebola, influenza, and West Nile. Zoonoses can escalate rapidly into global pandemics when human-to-human transmission occurs, and Quammen wants us to understand disease dynamics and exactly what’s at stake. Drawing on the truly dramatic history of virology, he profiles brave and stubborn viral sleuths and recounts his own hair-raising field adventures, including helping capture large fruit bats in Bangladesh. Along the way, Quammen explains how devilishly difficult it is to trace the origins of a zoonosis and explicates the hidden process by which pathogens spill over from their respective reservoir hosts (water fowl, mosquitoes, pigs, bats, monkeys) and infect humans. We contract Lyme disease after it’s spread by black-legged ticks and white-footed mice, not white-tailed deer as commonly believed. The SARS epidemic involves China’s wild flavor trend and the eating of civets. Quammen’s revelatory, far-reaching investigation into AIDS begins in 1908 with a bloody encounter between a hunter and a chimpanzee in Cameroon. Zoonotic diseases are now on the rise due to our increasing population, deforestation, fragmented ecosystems, and factory farming. Quammen spent six years on this vital, in-depth tour de force in the hope that knowledge will engender preparedness. An essential work. --Donna Seaman

Review

“Starred review. ...a frightening but critically important book for anyone interested in learning about the prospects of the world’s next major pandemic.”
- Publishers Weekly

“David Quammen might be my favorite living science writer: amiable, erudite, understated, incredibly funny, profoundly humane. The best of his books, The Song of the Dodo, renders the relatively arcane field of island biogeography as gripping as a thriller. That bodes well for his new book, whose subject really is thriller-worthy: how deadly diseases (AIDS, SARS, Ebola) make the leap from animals to humans, and how, where, and when the next pandemic might emerge.”
- Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

“That [Quammen] hasn’t won a nonfiction National Book Award or Pulitzer Prize is an embarrassment.”
- Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“David Quammen [is] one of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling.”
- Nathan Wolfe, Nature

“Starred review. An essential work.”
- Booklist

“Starred review. A wonderful, eye-opening account of humans versus disease.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“[Spillover is] David Quammen’s absorbing, lively and, yes, occasionally gory trek through the animal origins of emerging human diseases.”
- Cleveland Plain Dealer

“As page turning as Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone… [Quammen is] one of the best science writers.”
- Seattle Times

“[Spillover] delivers news from the front lines of public health. It makes clear that animal diseases are inseparable from us because we are inseparable from the natural world.”
- Philadelphia Tribune

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (October 1, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393066800
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393066807
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 4,765 ratings

About the author

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David Quammen

David Quammen

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David Quammen is the author of a dozen fiction and nonfiction books, including Blood Line and The Song of the Dodo. Spillover, his most recent book, was shortlisted for several major awards. A three-time National Magazine Award winner, he is a contributing writer for National Geographic and has written also for Harper’s, Outside, Esquire, The Atlantic, Powder, and Rolling Stone. He travels widely on assignment, usually to jungles, mountains, remote islands, and swamps.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4,765 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting, informative, and unique. They appreciate the brilliance of the writing and exposition, saying it never gets too technical. Readers also describe the content as well-written, with depth and breadth. They find the content timely and relevant. Customers also praise the storytelling as amazing, cohesive, and objective.

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ContentWriting qualityPlotRelevanceContent complexityHumorResearch
307 customers mention "Content"286 positive21 negative

Customers find the book interesting and informative, with a highly readable overview of zoonoses. They also say the narrator is engaging and rigorous in his research and descriptions. Readers say the book imparts several urgent messages without ever going over the edge. They appreciate the good diction and sense of what virologists do. They say the content provides some historic background, latest developments, and reports from field trips.

"...The book is excellent in every respect. It combines deep, clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be..." Read more

"...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..." Read more

"...and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that makes the reader understand... even..." Read more

"...This book is rich with important topics which I believe we should ponder. Why?..." Read more

198 customers mention "Writing quality"187 positive11 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book brilliant, exposition rich, and simple. They also say it's well-written, composed, and accessible to any reader with an interest in medicine. Readers also mention the author does a great job bringing everything together and explaining difficult topics.

"...with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable...." Read more

"...have to pay attention, but the author does a great job at bringing everything together and explaining difficult to understand topics...." Read more

"...David Quammen's writing is accessible and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that..." Read more

"...and entertains; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much...." Read more

89 customers mention "Plot"72 positive17 negative

Customers find the storytelling amazing, eloquent, and poignant. They also say the book is educational while not boring. Readers describe the author as very interesting and the story as cohesive, well-supported, and iconoclastic.

"...deep, clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable...." Read more

"...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..." Read more

"...and DESPITE its cover, Quammen's Spillover is an incredibly calm and objective look at diseases and infections caused by zoonotic..." Read more

"...This keeps you turning the pages, the pace is never too slow and it never gets too technical, and at the end of each chapter you truly feel you've..." Read more

28 customers mention "Relevance"24 positive4 negative

Customers find the book entertaining and timely.

"What a timely piece of writing!..." Read more

"...This keeps you turning the pages, the pace is never too slow and it never gets too technical, and at the end of each chapter you truly feel you've..." Read more

"...Obviously very timely, and very well written in language that conveys the technical details in ways easy for lay people to understand...." Read more

"...Written a few years ago, but very timely and eriely on the money in the era of Covid-19...." Read more

18 customers mention "Content complexity"18 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's content complex. They say it's well-written, with depth and breadth. Readers also mention that the subject is dense and treated nimbly. They also say the book covers everything and gives detailed explanations of how diseases emerge.

"...The book is excellent in every respect. It combines deep, clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be..." Read more

"Overall: This book is an absolute masterpiece. Epic in scope, brilliant in how it is all connected, very relevant to today, and extremely eye..." Read more

"...And then there's the up and comers like Corona virus, highly adaptable and dangerously transmissible...." Read more

"...This book covers a lot of ground; not just the biology...." Read more

14 customers mention "Humor"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the humor in the book good.

"...; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much...." Read more

"...The author also has a fine sense of humor, for such a serious subject...." Read more

"...Even as a doctor I learned a lot. A huge amount of information delivered with characteristic humour, and in a way which makes you feel like you are..." Read more

"...information to the general public in a very direct and quite amusing way." Read more

11 customers mention "Research"11 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well researched and well written.

"Spillover is science exposition at its best...." Read more

"...I read The Hot Zone some years ago, and this book, Spillover is so much better, and real, that I recommend reading it to anyone who has read Hot..." Read more

"...Spillover is full of verifiable facts and sources, names, dates, times, places...." Read more

"Spillover is an eye-opener! An education for the lay-person in many aspects of the world of micro-biology...." Read more

Important book, great reading
5 out of 5 stars
Important book, great reading
We're big fans of his writing and every family member has read this book since it arrived a few weeks ago.
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably Good
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2024
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I picked this up during the covid pandemic, but did not have the stomach to read it until years later. Fortunately, it turned out to be less traumatic than I feared. The book is excellent in every respect. It combines deep, clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable. I frequently get bored with books halfway through, but I read this through with out significant interruption because it was so interesting.

The only downside (which was not enough to take off a star) is the author's long winded imagining of the origin of AIDS. It felt unnecessary and kind of disrespectful to the people he was imagining - including, in one case, to a real life Congolese woman who he casually assumes to be a whore. It just wasn't necessary, or helpful, or insightful.
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bill greene
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece! Epic in scope, highly relevant, and excellent writing 10/10
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020
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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:
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.”
“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 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.
9 people found this helpful
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Neuron
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
This is the best book I have read in a long time. It is like a mystery thriller played out in various exotic locations around the world, that simultaneously, gives the reader intriguing and accurate knowledge about various exotic but dangerous pathogens that have the potential to forever change life as we know it. In other words, if you would put the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, a travel diary book by Bill Bryson, and an Agatha Christie thriller in the mixer, you would get something like this. It just doesn't get better than this!

David Quammen's writing is accessible and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that makes the reader understand... even crave science. Though I have read many scholarly articles, no single text I can recall have given me such a deep understanding and appreciation for a scientific subject. I have always been fascinated by bacteria and viruses, however this book multiplied my fascination and my appreciation for the scientists that study viruses and other pathogens in humans as well as in other species.

This book is about spillovers (surprise!). A spillover is when a virus or a bacteria which normally live in one species transfer to a different species. Normally this transition spells the end for the pathogen because they evolved to live in their host species and not in the new species, but sometimes the pathogen survive or even thrive in their new host, which is typically bad news for the new host.

Think of pathogens such as Ebola, rabies, HIV, SARS, and the Spanish flu, all of which are spillovers from other species, and you will understand that pathogens that have the potential to spillover a.k.a zoonotic viruses can result in disaster.

Be assured, you will learn much about these intriguing pathogens, however, this book is not just a review of what we know about zoonotic viruses. On the very first page Quammen takes us to a sunny idyllic farm in Australia. Recently a number of horses have died following under mysterious circumstances. Worse still, several humans that came into contact with the horse also died. What caused these deaths and from where did the horses acquire it? Quammen instantly grips the reader. It was an instant page turner, with real science in it! You must know how these horses and humans died and you gladly, eagerly, follow Quammen when he takes you on a journey in the scientific literature as it develops over time, with frequent field visits that Quammen personally joined to understand the subject better.

Quammen cover several different pathogens, including HIV, Ebola, malaria, and SARS, and he travels accordingly. We get to follow scientists (and Quammen) into crowded Asian markets where hundreds of different animal species, each with their own set of nished pathogens, can be bought for that evenings dinner. We get to visit Bangladesh to analyse date-palm-sap to see if bats have pooped deadly virus into this popular drink. We visit the Congolese jungle where Ebola have completely eradicated large populations of gorillas as well as some smaller human populations. We go to caves filled with snakes, bats and guano. Of course we also get to visit high tech laboratories around the world to talk to researchers who try to understand these zoonotic viruses and predict where the next big pandemic will strike - because if or when "the next big one", capable of killing us by the millions, comes, it will almost certainly be a spillover from another species.

The human species is vulnerable. We are around seven billion people. We are an urban species meaning that we tend of cluster in large groups (cities), which provides pathogens with the perfect springboard. We travel extensively, and could thus easily spread a virus around the globe in a short amount of time. We also continually mess with new ecological systems which may or may not have a deadly virus just waiting for a new host...

Put another way. Human population growth is an typical example of an outbreak i.e., explosive population growth. Just like with outbreaks of crickets that sweep across Africa eating everything it encounter, humans are sweeping across the entire planet, interfering with lots of ecological systems along the way. Indeed the most massive outbreak of any species that the world had ever seen is not a cricket or a larva, it is homo sapiens. And when there is an outbreak of a particular species what typically halts it? You guessed it - pathogens.
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Donato
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting and terrifying
Reviewed in Italy on August 8, 2023
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In the age of unbridled ignorance this book should be on the bookshelf of everyone. For people with an education in science, even base level science, it opens new, worrying, terrifying prospects for our future. For those, instead, which lack any scientific education, reading this book will be like opening a window on the real face of Nature. In both cases, I highly recommend to read it, no matter its publication is now 11 years in the past.
Natural Selection is, once again, the leitmotif of it all. Random mutation followed by logical selection based on environmental pressures is key. That, and human behaviour. Is right the author when he states that variability in human behaviour is a major factor when it comes to the spreading potential of a new bug. Covid story is still fresh in our memories, after all. Refusing to adopt a reasonable, respectful and rational behaviour is the fastest way to catastrophe. The price we pay everytime there’s a new pandemic - and there have been quite a few since we started to collect data and to study old events - is incredibly high. It is surely higher than the price we should pay to avert the next pandemic. This last message in my opinion is important: many people believe that their life is utterly detached from the environment in which they live so why should they go all the way to pay huge sums of money to avert something that might happen tomorrow as well as in the next 100 years? Risk assessment is not even an option in the mind of common citizens. Unfortunately, though, the so-called “next Big One” will, sooner or later, hit us, like COVID did. Once again we will be forced to adopt again those strict measures that we all hated so much. We hated them because they limited our lives, cutting our rights. Only understanding the seriousness of a pandemic could bring people to reason. Again, this book is enlightening in this respect.
I learned a lot from reading it. In some places it is worse than horror movies - if one catches the implications of dynamics described by the author. It’s a series of stories for everyone, written in a magnificent way, full of chilling details.
In the end, one cannot help but think that as a society we don’t understand the world we live in. We are changing the planet in so many terrible ways that we are constantly creating those conditions that will allow, once again, the “jump” of a virus, or a “bug”, from the “wild” world to the “civilized” world. Once that jump is accomplished, our hyper connected world will allow it to travel the globe in a matter of hours. It happened in the past, many times. It will happen again. The only logical question is, “when?”.
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Anoop
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute eye opener!
Reviewed in India on February 2, 2022
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I am a biology buff. I read anything related to biology right from research papers to Medium blogs. This book has been the most engrossing read so far! The author's command on the subject shows very clearly in his writing. It is a must read to understand the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic by the virtue of all the important past disease outbreaks that the author talks about in the book. Go for it, you will be wiser at the end of the book.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars You should read this book.
Reviewed in Canada on July 24, 2020
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Amazingly written book that has been compelling in each section and offers great insights. It goes into great detail on the biology (ecology, evolution, and genetics) of many zoonotic diseases, yet is written in a way that is accessible to readers from all walks of life. Terrifyingly accurate in predictions on future "spillover" events. Great read.
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Leandro Santana de Oliveira
5.0 out of 5 stars E o ciclo continua…
Reviewed in Brazil on July 13, 2020
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Livro de autoria de David Quammen, escritor reconhecido pelos suas obras sobre ciência, natureza e viagens. Escrito em 2012, mas lido durante a pandemia de Covid-19, é de uma atualidade fenomenal.

Spillover é um termo técnico para doenças que migram de animais para seres humanos. Muito se fala de um aumento de pandemias e do surgimento de novas doenças a partir de preconceitos (étnicos e políticos). Não sou da área de saúde ou ciência, mas lendo o livro fica claro que a destruição de florestas, a falta de alimentos ou do processamento dos alimentos são as causas mais frequentes de novas doenças.

O livro é de fácil leitura e bastante envolvente. O autor visitou in loco boa parte dos locais descritos no livro, portanto, cada capítulo é uma aventura na qual o leitor fica esperando o que vai acontecer e quem será o “culpado” (uma raposa-voadora, um primata superior, um esquilo?). O mais intrigante é que para muitas doenças nem sequer há uma resposta definitiva, como é o caso do Ebola, onde existem suspeitos, mas não condenados.

Destaco especialmente o capítulo referente ao vírus HIV, que tem seu surgimento rastreado ao início do século XX, o que desbanca uma série de preconceitos do século XXI. O caminho percorrido para descobrir a origem desse malfadado vírus é realmente uma obra prima de história e ciência.

Livro altamente recomendado, especialmente no momento que estamos vivendo.
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M&M
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnífico
Reviewed in Spain on February 6, 2021
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Muy interesante, informativo y ameno. No es un inglés técnico, sino periodístico
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