Global warming poses threat of disease spread among animals

NEW DELHI: The researchers have warned that changes in climate can increase infectious disease risk in animals, which could spread to humans. A study published in the journal named Science, approves of a phenomenon known as the “thermal mismatch hypothesis”, which suggests that a greatest risk for cold adapted animals of getting infected by diseases occurs as the temperatures rise.

A study co-authored by Jason Rohr from University of Nome Dame in United States of America stated that understanding how spread and severity of animal infectious diseases could change in the future has reached a new level of importance as a consequence of the pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2. It is a pathogen that looks to originate from wildlife.

Rohr added that most of the emerging infectious diseases originate from wildlife. This is another important reason to enforce mitigation strategies to reduce climate change. The research team had collected information from more than 7,000 surveys of different animal host-parasite systems across all continents to present diversity in animals and their pathogens in both water and land environments. The study also said that pathogens in warm locations perform better than the animal hosts during cool weather as warm-adapted have less tolerance for heat.

The analysis of the study suggests that global warming will probably shift infectious diseases away from the equator with the decrease in animal infectious diseases in the lowland tropics and increase in the highland tropics.