IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v468y2010i7324d10.1038_nature09575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases

Author

Listed:
  • Felicia Keesing

    (Bard College)

  • Lisa K. Belden

    (Virginia Tech)

  • Peter Daszak

    (EcoHealth Alliance)

  • Andrew Dobson

    (EEB, Eno Hall, Princeton University)

  • C. Drew Harvell

    (Cornell University)

  • Robert D. Holt

    (University of Florida)

  • Peter Hudson

    (Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University)

  • Anna Jolles

    (College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University)

  • Kate E. Jones

    (Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London)

  • Charles E. Mitchell

    (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Samuel S. Myers

    (Harvard Medical School, Harvard University)

  • Tiffany Bogich

    (EcoHealth Alliance)

  • Richard S. Ostfeld

    (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Felicia Keesing & Lisa K. Belden & Peter Daszak & Andrew Dobson & C. Drew Harvell & Robert D. Holt & Peter Hudson & Anna Jolles & Kate E. Jones & Charles E. Mitchell & Samuel S. Myers & Tiffany Bogich, 2010. "Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases," Nature, Nature, vol. 468(7324), pages 647-652, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:468:y:2010:i:7324:d:10.1038_nature09575
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09575
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature09575?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:468:y:2010:i:7324:d:10.1038_nature09575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.