Want to limit the transfer of viruses between animals and humans? A new report gives examples of how to do that by keeping ecosystems intact.
The pandemic prevention road map, published March 26 in Nature Communications, recommends protecting or restoring places where animals forage and rest, and minimizing human-wildlife encounters in more developed areas.
Most outbreaks of previously unknown infectious diseases, like COVID-19 or HIV, are caused when a virus jumps from an animal to a human. That jumping is called zoonotic spillover. Wild animals stressed by food shortages or habitat loss become more susceptible to viral infections and may even shed more viruses.
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