Chapter 2. Zoonoses: Blurred Lines of Emergent Disease and Ecosystem Health - UNEP Frontiers 2016 Report: Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern

The 20th century was a period of unprecedented ecological change, with dramatic reductions in natural ecosystems and biodiversity and equally dramatic increases in people and domestic animals. Never before have so many animals been kept by so many people—and never before have so many opportunities existed for pathogens to pass from wild and domestic animals through the biophysical environment to a!ect people causing zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. The result has been a worldwide increase in emerging zoonotic diseases, outbreaks of epidemic zoonoses as well as a rise in foodborne zoonoses globally, and a troubling persistence of neglected zoonotic diseases in poor countries.