Understanding Pathogens and Parasites…and the Future of Our Planet

Everything is linked: coronaviruses and other emerging infectious diseases, the degradation of biodiversity and the destruction of the environment by humans. Around the world, pathogens and parasites are responding to these changes in unexpected ways, fueling the rise of pandemics and the extinction of countless plant and animal species.

But all is not lost. To avoid catastrophe, scientists must focus on monitoring and limiting the spread of certain high-risk viruses, particularly in farms and live animal markets, and governments must step up efforts to track down pathogens, protect wildlife and strengthen public health systems, Canadian and American experts say in a new article.

Led by Timothée Poisot, specialist in computational ecology and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Montreal, and Colin J. Carlson, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Public Health, research by researchers from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and China is published today in the inaugural issue of Nature Reviews Biodiversity.

In addition to an overview of current scientific knowledge, this work offers a historical perspective of pandemics and viral, bacterial or other spreads that have occurred since 1960. Several recommendations are made, in particular on the prevention of future pandemics and, more generally, on improving surveillance techniques in the field of public health.

We asked Timothée Poisot to tell us more about this study – whose co-author Cole Brookson is a visiting researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at UdeM and a member of Colin J. Carlson’s laboratory – and its implications for future policies.

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The article “Pathogens and planetary change”, by Timothée Poisot and colleagues, was published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity.