Land use changes affect disease transmission

Today’s Video of the Day from the journal Mammal Review describes how land use changes influence the transmission of disease from animals to humans. 

Many of the impacts of land use changes are understudied and not well understood. The researchers found that land conversion, urban development, and deforestation change the behavior of animals and directly affect the spread of disease. 

“We highlight major gaps in our understanding of how land-use change affects the spread of diseases from mammals to humans in terms of how key hosts, like bats, are affected, and how important land-use changes, such as agriculture, impact wild mammals and their interaction with livestock,” said study co-author Dr. Orly Razgour. 

“There is an urgent need for more studies that link animal ecology and responses to land-use change with pathogen ecology and disease spread.”

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: Mammal Review