In Brazil, wide swaths of rainforest are being decimated for logging and farmland. In Asia, animals are being collected in the wild and sold in markets. In Africa, some animals are hunted down to near-extinction for their so-called medicinal qualities. Meanwhile, in countries like Canada and the U.S., some natural habitats are being overtaken by dense, large-scale farming practices.
Experts believe this kind of destruction of our natural habitat is paving the way for emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19. “The loss of biodiversity absolutely plays a role in the emergence of new diseases,” said Felicia Keesing, an ecologist and professor of biology at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Keesing, a researcher on emerging diseases and nature, explained that when biodiversity declines — particularly as a result of habitat loss — it doesn’t do so in a random way; certain kinds of species are more likely to disappear than others “The ones that tend to thrive after biodiversity declines are the ones that are also most likely to give us new diseases,” Keesing said.
Article submitted by, Great Gazoo.
