I read this story, and liked it, but...

I have some knowledge of both animal agriculture and food resources on the
planet, so while I'm not an expert, I can say that I am not making up this
completely out of whole cloth.  Here goes.  

I have no problem with the idea of a meta-virus that specifically goes after
ALL herd animals.  I think it would be unlikely to keep its effects limited
to only those species that are currently used as herd animals: other related
species (Bighorn sheep for example) would also be decimated.  There is also
the likelihood that there would be some humans who were affected by the
virus.  Viruses are nasty things that mutate easily, and not everyone shares
the same physiological responses.  (One of my personal objections to the idea
of biological weapons:  they can get out of control very easily.)   But, as I
said this isn't an idea that really strikes me as entirely implausible.
 Similar ideas have shown up in Science Fiction (published types) for years:
 Earth, by David Brin has an anti-goat virus; Zodiac by Neal Stepheson(?) had
a PCB producing amoeba; and The Armageddon Iheiritance by David Weber had a
virus that killed everything it touched.  Just to show that I had some
previous exposure to the idea.  
     What bothered me is that, in general, it takes about five times the
caloric content of feed to produce an equivalent caloric value of meat.
 Remember the most efficient biological systems are only about 20-25%
efficient.  So the loss of ALL food animals from the planet would not result
in starvation conditions.  In fact some people argue, with some good figures,
that one of the best reasons for a vegetarian standard is that it would make
hundreds of thousands of tons of grain available for human consumption that
is currently going to animal feed.  I admit that many things that one can
feed a cow are not very appetising for people, but a large amount of the beef
(and pork and chicken and duck...) available had been fed on maize, and
wheat, or rice...
     So the worldwide threat of starvation that was shown in the fict is what
I felt was unrealisitic, not the virus itself.  

             Just my two cents....

             Mike Taub


P.S. remember meat is so rare that 60% of the world's population does not get
any regular meat in thier diet at all!  (Us North Americans are spoiled
rotten!)