Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases

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Biodiversity is good for you

Changes in biodiversity have the potential to either increase or reduce the incidence of infectious disease in plants and animals — including humans — because they involve interactions among species. At a minimum, this requires a host and a pathogen; often many more species are involved, including additional hosts, vectors and other organisms with which these species interact. Felicia Keesing and colleagues review the evidence that reduced biodiversity affects the transmission of infectious diseases of humans, other animals and plants. Despite important questions still to be answered, they conclude that the evidence that biodiversity exerts a protective effect on infectious diseases is sufficiently strong to include biodiversity protection as a strategy to improve health.

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Abstract

Current unprecedented declines in biodiversity reduce the ability of ecological communities to provide many fundamental ecosystem services. Here we evaluate evidence that reduced biodiversity affects the transmission of infectious diseases of humans, other animals and plants. In principle, loss of biodiversity could either increase or decrease disease transmission. However, mounting evidence indicates that biodiversity loss frequently increases disease transmission. In contrast, areas of naturally high biodiversity may serve as a source pool for new pathogens. Overall, despite many remaining questions, current evidence indicates that preserving intact ecosystems and their endemic biodiversity should generally reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases.

Supplementary information

The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/nature09575) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Related collections

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Author and article information

Contributors

Felicia Keesing: keesing@bard.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Nature

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nature

Title: Nature

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK (London )

ISSN (Print): 0028-0836

ISSN (Electronic): 1476-4687

Publication date (Electronic): 1 December 2010

Publication date (Print): 2010

Volume: 468

Issue: 7324

Pages: 647-652

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.252838.6, ISNI 0000 0001 2375 3628, Department of Biology, , Bard College, ; Annandale, 12504 New York USA

[2 ]GRID grid.438526.e, ISNI 0000 0001 0694 4940, Department of Biological Sciences, , Virginia Tech, ; Blacksburg, 24061 Virginia USA

[3 ]GRID grid.420826.a, ISNI 0000 0004 0409 4702, EcoHealth Alliance, ; New York, 10001 New York USA

[4 ]GRID grid.16750.35, ISNI 0000 0001 2097 5006, EEB, Eno Hall, Princeton University, ; Princeton, 08544-3417 New Jersey USA

[5 ]GRID grid.5386.8, ISNI 000000041936877X, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, , Cornell University, ; Ithaca, 14853 New York USA

[6 ]GRID grid.15276.37, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8091, Department of Biology, , University of Florida, ; Gainesville, 32611 Florida USA

[7 ]GRID grid.29857.31, ISNI 0000 0001 2097 4281, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, ; College Station, 16802 Pennsylvania USA

[8 ]GRID grid.4391.f, ISNI 0000 0001 2112 1969, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University, ; Corvallis, 97331-4801 Oregon USA

[9 ]GRID grid.20419.3e, ISNI 0000 0001 2242 7273, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, ; London, NW1 4RY UK

[10 ]GRID grid.10698.36, ISNI 0000000122483208, Department of Biology, , The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ; Chapel Hill, 27599 North Carolina USA

[11 ]GRID grid.38142.3c, ISNI 000000041936754X, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, ; Cambridge, 02138 Massachusetts USA

[12 ]GRID grid.285538.1, ISNI 0000 0000 8756 8029, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, ; Millbrook, 12545 New York USA

Article

Publisher ID: BFnature09575

DOI: 10.1038/nature09575

PMC ID: 7094913

PubMed ID: 21124449

SO-VID: 3f42ea9e-2ef0-44ab-b770-d45a87537e70

License:

This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.