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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday April 09 2020, @08:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-speak-for-the-trees dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Viruses that jump from animals to people, like the one responsible for COVID-19, will likely become more common as people continue to transform natural habitats into agricultural land, according to a new Stanford study.

The analysis, published in Landscape Ecology, reveals how the loss of tropical forests in Uganda puts people at greater risk of physical interactions with wild primates and the viruses they carry. The findings have implications for the emergence and spread of infectious animal-to-human diseases in other parts of the world, and suggest potential solutions for curbing the trend.

[...] Unlike previous studies that examined the issue from primarily an ecological standpoint, the Stanford study is the first to integrate landscape-level ecological factors with individual-level behavioral factors and weigh risks to human health.

[...] The researchers were surprised to find some of their assumptions turned upside down. For example, small fragments of residual forest—not larger expanses of habitat—were most likely to be the site of human-wild primate contacts due to their shared borders with agricultural landscapes.

Similarly, the researchers speculate that increasing intrusion of agriculture into forests and resulting human activities in these areas could lead to more spillover of infections from wild primates to humans worldwide.

The researchers suggest that relatively small buffer zones, such as tree farms or reforestation projects, around biodiversity-rich forests could dramatically lessen the likelihood of human-wild primate interaction. Using external resources, such as national or international aid, to provide fuel and construction material or monetary supplements could also reduce pressure on people to seek out wood in forested areas.

"At the end of the day, land conservation and the reduction of forest fragmentation is our best bet to reduce human-wild animal interactions," said study coauthor Tyler McIntosh, a former graduate student in the Stanford Earth Systems Program now working at the Center for Western Priorities.

More information: Laura S. P. Bloomfield et al, Habitat fragmentation, livelihood behaviors, and contact between people and nonhuman primates in Africa, Landscape Ecology (2020). DOI: 10.1007/s10980-020-00995-w


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @11:32AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @11:32AM (#980544)
    There are 7+ billion humans. The diseases are unlikely to kill off even half.

    Once the forests are all gone, most of the reservoir species will become extinct. And then the only reservoirs would be the humans, in which case quarantines will help "tame" any diseases that tend to be too deadly.

    With humans as the only species left for the virus, if people are quarantined the moment they get any symptoms, only the strains/versions that stop causing significant symptoms for weeks would spread. This method won't work if there are reservoir species which can continue carrying the versions that cause more problems for us.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @12:27PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @12:27PM (#980549)

    You crazy madman... you're suggesting a world in which there are no pigs, and thus no bacon. What would be the point of living?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:58PM (#980570)

      > You crazy madman... you're suggesting a world in which there are no pigs, and thus no bacon. What would be the point of living?

      Guinea pigs, the poor man's bacon.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:46PM (#980566)

    Even with a pandemic births exceeding deaths over 2 to 1
    https://www.worldometers.info/ [worldometers.info]