Deforestation may drive animal-to-human infections
New research shows that the increased loss of forest habitat increases contact between humans and nonhuman primates - and therefore the transmission of diseases from animals to humans, much like coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19).
A fresh study published in the journal Landscape Ecology has discovered some factors that bring humans and nonhuman primates into contact.
The researchers explain that the continued destruction of forest habitats, for agricultural use or human habitation, would cause this contact to become more frequent, as humans and nonhuman primates will be forced into closer proximity.
As a consequence, the probability of diseases transmitting from these primates to humans are also likely to increase.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is an exemplory case of a virus that spread from animals to humans.
Zoonotic pathogens
According to a review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, more than half of most human pathogens are believed to be zoonotic, and therefore they first emerged in nonhuman animals and were then transmitted to humans.
A number of interlocking factors have increased the chances of these pathogens spreading to humans.
The review notes that global, intensive agriculture has increased, climate change has transformed ecologies, habitats have already been fragmented, biodiversity has been reduced, and humans have already been placed in increasing connection with wildlife, either directly or through intermediary animals, such as for example intensively farmed livestock.
The present study targets the roles that deforestation and other human behaviors may have in increasing contact between humans and nonhuman primates, from whom many viruses that currently circulate among people derive.
In line with the lead author of the analysis, Laura Bloomfield, who is studying to become a doctor of medicine and who's also a Ph.D. applicant at the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, in California, “At the same time when COVID-19 is triggering an unprecedented level of economic, social, and health devastation, it is crucial that people think critically about how precisely human behaviors increase our interactions with disease-infected animals.”
“The combination of major environmental change, like deforestation, and poverty can spark the fire of a worldwide pandemic.”
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
