Franck Courchamp is an ecologist and researcher at the CNRS. He explains why the collapse of biodiversity is a real danger for humanity.
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LE FIGARO.- Can we make a link between the biodiversity crisis and the health crisis?
Franck COURCHAMP.- Yes. The wild world is a huge reserve of pathogens. Almost two-thirds of emerging diseases are of animal origin. This is the case with Sars-CoV-2, but it was already the case with HIV, Ebola or Zika. In mammals alone it is estimated that there are 320,000 viruses not yet identified. The more animals are subjected to stress or the more their habitat is destroyed, the more the risks of interspecies contamination are increased. If you shake an aquarium, there is a good chance of getting wet. When you shake the virus reservoir that is biodiversity, it is inevitable to be splashed.
Is promiscuity with animals dangerous?
In general, viruses are very rarely transmitted from one species to another.
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