As the novel Coronavirus had broken out at the end of December 2019, in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it was not long until the first conspiracy theory arose: had been developed, The Virus in a nearby laboratory.
Scientific consensus, however, is: In the case of the Virus SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonosis, i.e. a disease transmitted from animals to humans. Most likely, the Virus came from a bat that has probably infected a different species of Mammal, before it wandered to the people.
Even if SARS-CoV-2 has been determined in a laboratory, the person in this pandemic quite a role. The interventions in natural habitats, the loss of biodiversity and disruption of Ecosystems make it much more likely that such viruses from spreading. This is evidenced by the comprehensive new study by scientists from Australia and the USA.
More than two-thirds of emerging infectious diseases animals
the outbreaks of new cases of infection have increased diseases strong. Since the 1980s, the number has all of ten years more than tripled. More than two-thirds of these diseases and animals. And about 70 percent of which come from wild animals. Many of the known infectious diseases – Ebola, HIV, swine and bird flu are all zoonoses.
SARS-CoV-2, and disease caused COVID-19, have yet another one: Due to the highly networked world’s population is such a modern disease outbreaks, and quickly become pandemics.
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Due to the disruption of Ecosystems, we have created the conditions that viruses can spread from animals to human populations, says Joachim Spangenberg, Ecologist and Vice-President of the research institution Sustainable Europe Research Institute. “We are creating this Situation, not the animals,” says Spangenberg, compared to the DW.
deforestation and interventions in the habitats
The people in front to penetrate further and further into the territories of wild animals, ravaging the forests in order to breed cattle, go hunting and try to gain resources. Thus, they are increasingly exposed to pathogens, leaving these places and the populated animal body – usually never.
“We are wild animals coming closer,” said Yan Xiang, a Professor of Virology at the Health Science Center the University of Texas, “and that brings us with these viruses in contact.”
“With the increase in human population density and the ever-greater encroachment in natural habitats, not only by humans but also by our farm animals, we increase the risk of infection, says David Hayman, one of the researchers at Massey University in new Zealand to infectious diseases and their Transmission routes.
The destruction of the Ecosystem, not only increases the likelihood of Transmission. It also has an impact on how many viruses there are in nature and how they behave.
In the last century, was destroyed about half of the tropical rain forests, in which approximately two-thirds of all the living beings are at home in the world. This severe loss of habitat has an impact on the entire Ecosystem, even at the “parts that we tend to forget that infections,” says Hayman.
scientists have observed: When the animals disappear at the upper end of the food chain, tend to animals at the lower end of the chain, such as rats and mice, which carry more disease-causing organisms, in some cases, those in the room. “It’s not just a question of how many species there are in an Ecosystem,” says Alice Latinne of the conservation organization, Wildlife Conservation Society. “It’s also about what it is.”
disturbance of the Ecosystem associated with increased risk for new transmission routes of diseases
“Each type plays a different role in an Ecosystem, and sometimes, if we replace a type by another, this can have an enormous impact on the risk of disease. And sometimes we can’t see it before,” she says of the DW.
The alteration of habitat may force wild animals and their pathogens to somewhere else to Dodge, also in human inhabited areas. Latinne is relying on, for example, the Nipah Virus, which occurred in the late 1990s in Malaysia. At that time, the deforestation has led to the fact that flying foxes leave their habitat, the forest, and in the mango trees of pig-breeding farms have settled. Bats often carry disease-causing organisms, which do not harm themselves. However, in this case, you were stuck with their feces and saliva of the pigs and the infected then the farmers.
so, There is evidence that the disturbance of Ecosystems in connection with the increased risk for new transmission routes of diseases. This is the reason, so Spangenberg, which is why experts talk about the importance of the concept of “One Health”: the idea that everything is interconnected – the health of the animals, the Ecosystem and man. If a unit is out of balance, then the other to follow. I need help I want to help
The trade in wild animals
so-Called “Wet markets”, where that is still living or shortly before they slaughtered animals are sold, are another incubator for infectious diseases. Scientists believe that SARS-CoV-2 is surfaced with a high probability to such a market, in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The pens for sick animals in cages is in many ways the “perfect environment” to new disease incubate pathogens, says Spangenberg, and “to transfer is an excellent way of diseases from one species to another.” Therefore, many scientists say, including Spangenberg, that the world needs at least strict rules that regulate the markets for live animals.
read more: The often shady business with wild animals and plants – 6 things you should know
This is also the message of Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, who is a world-wide ban on wild animal markets asks for. She directs at the United Nations, the Secretariat for the biodiversity Convention.
cost for the Occurrence and Transmission by wildlife are high,
But Mrema emphasized that millions of people, particularly in low-income areas, food and income are instructed to provide you with these markets.
The power, according to Hayman, the solutions to prevent the outbreak of diseases, so difficult. The exploitation of animals is a part of it, he says, but: “poverty, access to work, such as people in remote areas, the way people with food handlers”, also contribute to the circumstances to Transfer the effects.
Even at the economic level, believes Latinne, “we will be forced to change something – because the cost of the Occurrence of diseases and the Transmission by wild animals will be much higher than the economic Benefit due to our exploitation of the environment.”
“We are part of nature – we are part of the Ecosystem in which our health is with the health of the wild animals, the health of the cattle and the health of the environment,” says Latinne. “We need to find a better way to live safely with each other.”
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*The post “”We are creating a Situation, not animals”: Our life style promotes pandemic outbreaks” published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
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