As the Earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers predict wild animals will be forced to relocate their habitats — likely to regions with large human populations — dramatically increasing the risk of a viral jump to humans that could lead to the next pandemic.
This link between climate change and viral transmission is described by an international research team led by scientists at Georgetown University and is published April 28 in Nature (“Climate Change Increases Cross-species Viral Transmission Risk,” doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04788-w).
In their study, the scientists conducted the first comprehensive assessment of how climate change will restructure the global mammalian virome. The work focuses on geographic range shifts — the journeys that species will undertake as they follow their habitats into new areas. As they encounter other mammals for the first time, the study projects they will share thousands of viruses.
The scientists say these shifts bring greater opportunities for viruses like Ebola or coronaviruses to emerge in new areas, making them harder to track, and into new types of animals, making it easier for viruses to jump across a “stepping stone” species into humans.
Read more at Georgetown University Medical Center
Image: Novel viral-sharing events coincide with human population centers. In 2070, human population centers in equatorial Africa, south China, India and Southeast Asia will overlap with projected hotspots of cross-species viral transmission in wildlife. (Image courtesy of Colin Carlson/GUMC)