A 4th case of monkeypox has been identified in our country. This disease is a zoonosis, a disease transmitted by animals. This was also the case with Covid. An increasingly common phenomenon.
In the heart of the forests, bats are well known to be true reservoirs of viruses, which perhaps, one day, will cause illness in humans. But many other animals can transmit zoonoses to us, monkeys like cows,
Rodents like ticks… These zoonoses come to us via their viruses, parasites, fungi or bacteria.
Since the H5N1 episode, in our country, virologists and ornithologists have been working together and have observed more highly pathogenic germs in wild birds for 2 years. However, the problem is elsewhere.
“The risk increases with the expansion and multiplication of factory farms which are epidemic reactorsexplains Didier Vangeluwe, ornithologist at the Museum of Natural Sciences. Concentrating tens of thousands of farmed birds with an immune system that is never as efficient as that of wild birds represents a danger of the emergence of new diseases.“
It is also a question of human context.
“Many studies suggest that climate change and deforestation alter animal ecosystems, explains Emmanuel André, microbiologist at KULeuven. The greater connections between the wild animal world and the ever-growing human population… These conditions are favorable for the emergence of zoonoses.”
Coronavirus, influenza or other smallpox – scientists expect an increased risk of epidemics of these animal-related diseases.