[Loss of biodiversity: a one-way ticket to new emerging diseases?]

To feed and house the 8 billion people on this planet, large-scale land use changes are causing biodiversity to decline at an unprecedented rate. The frontier between wildlife, humans and domestic animals is shrinking day by day and favors the passage of pathogens between these different reservoirs. The health crisis caused by the Nipah virus, the result of a viral passage between fruit bats, pigs and humans is a perfect example. The consumption of bushmeat and the sale of wild animals in markets where livestock and wild animals mix amplify these transmission risks. Only a multidisciplinary globalized public health approach can anticipate and reduce the risks of a future pandemic.