I remember reading a natural geographic article by Katrina Zimmar, an article before the pandemic that mentioned the emergence of infectious diseases in humans due to deforestation. Deforestation, which may be caused due to human activities, natural disasters or any other various reasons, not only impacts the plants lost in it but also insects and other living organisms that depend on it. This includes viruses, especially the Nipah and Lassa viruses that cause malaria and lyme disease.
This is due to the creation of environments for these viruses to grow. Malaria, which is transmitted to mosquitoes, allows their breeding in deforested areas and thus transmittance of the viruses. Additionally, as the living organisms and insects lose their habitats from forests burning down, being cut, they move to other areas and increase viral transmission along the way. Therefore, this closing barrier between wildlife and other animals due to deforestation serves as a thriving environment for many bacteria and viruses to grow, spread and increase the likelihood of epidemics and pandemics.
Additional research suggested the link between host diseases transmissible to humans via other mammals such as bats and rodents due to their change in environment to urban surroundings, due to decrease in biodiversity and urbanization.
Some specific examples of these viral diseases and infections are as follows:
- Yellow Fever: This viral disease, transmitted by mosquitoes became the cause of an outbreak in the early 91900s in Kenya where deforestation was at an all time rise. This decrease in forests ;ead to a high dentistry of primates in smaller areas and pathogens becomes more prevalent
- Ebola: The vector-borne virus that has had many outbreaks is transmitted through bats. There have been many links to Ebola being spread to large areas due to corridor for pathogen-carrying animals
Therefore, preventic zoonotic spillover is important until there have been clear links established between how these viruses jump from wildlife to humans. The organisms that are able to adapt to deforestation and loss of biodiversity are the ones to watch out for.
Tollesfson. (2020). Why deforestation and extinctions make pandemics more likely. Nature.
Gibb, R. et al. (2020). Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2562-8.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 