Rats have been seen as spreading the disease since the days of the plague, but new research shows that rats and other animals in the city are actually more likely to cause the next pandemic than thought.
Researchers at Georgetown University in Washington studied data on nearly 3,000 mammals, hoping to find that those living in urban environments have more viruses that can be transmitted to humans.
They actually found that urban animals certainly possessed 10 times more types of diseases, but a methodological bias may be involved: they were the subject of 100 times more studies than their opposite the countryside.
When this massive bias was corrected, the researchers were surprised to find that rats were no more likely to be the source of a new disease than other animals.
However still not a good idea to be too close to urban wildlifesaid Greg Albery, who led the study published Monday in the journal Ecology and Evolution of Nature.
Animals in this city are unlikely to be the source of the next “disease X”, but they are still often the source of known vital diseases.he said toAFPciting the example of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease commonly transmitted by rats.
” Because we have studied animals that live in cities for a long time, we know a lot about their parasites so very little is known … Rural wildlife is more uncertain and more likely to give us the next big threat. “
But people regularly interact with rats, always fair to describe them as pain spongessaid toAFP Jonathan Richardson, professor of urban ecology at the University of Richmond.
Mr Albery and study co-author Colin Carlson published research last week showing that climate change could increase the risk of new outbreaks.
They found that when animals such as bats fled to cooler areas, they first interacted with other species and created new opportunities for diseases that could infect humans.
However, according to Mr. Albery, urban mammals such as rats may play a role in this process.
His research on global warming has also shown that new opportunities for viruses to jump between animals will now occur closer to populated areas, rather than in forests.
Source: Radio-Canada
