How our abuse of nature makes pandemics like covid-19 more likely
3 March 2021
From habitat degradation to squalid animal treatment, our part in allowing “zoonotic” diseases like covid-19 to leap into humans is becoming ever clearer
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Premium
Frozen bull semen may have unleashed bluetongue virus on farm animals
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The ongoing spread of bluetongue virus among European farm animals may have started when a cow was inseminated with infected bull semen stored from an earlier outbreak
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Environmental destruction risks increasing the spread of deadly diseases including Ebola and malaria, with serious consequences for future public health
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First study of individual badger movements in the UK finds that culling animals prompts others to range further afield, increasing the risk of spreading disease
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Over the next five years 2000 hippos are to be culled in Zambia, supposedly to stop them giving people anthrax, but the cull may inadvertently fuel the trade in hippo ivory
A plague from South Korea is killing frogs and toads worldwide
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The world’s amphibians are dying in swathes because of the lethal chytrid fungus, and it seems the epidemic had its origins on the Korean peninsula
The yogurt cure: can 'good' bacteria save bats?
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Probiotics aren't just a human health fad - their medicinal properties may be the best way to stop white-nose syndrome wiping out North America's bats
The frogs bouncing back after almost being wiped out by disease
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A few amphibian species in Panama are recovering from near-extinction, after apparently evolving resistance to the deadly chytrid fungus
Silkworms now have a bacterial superpower thanks to CRISPR
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The CRISPR immune system from bacteria has been engineered into silkworms, allowing them to fight off a virus that plagues the silk industry
Leopards that live in cities are protecting people from rabies
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Wild leopards wander into the Indian city of Mumbai to prey on feral dogs – and in doing so they stop the dogs biting people and passing on the rabies virus
