BRASILIA – The next pandemic could come from the Amazon rainforest, warns Brazilian ecologist David Lapola, who says human encroachment on animals’ habitats – a likely culprit in the coronavirus outbreak – is soaring there because of rampant deforestation.
Researchers say the urbanization of once-wild areas contributes to the emergence of zoonotic diseases — those that pass from animals to humans.
That includes the new coronavirus, which scientists believe originated in bats before passing to humans in China’s rapidly urbanizing Hubei province, probably via a third species. (AFP)
