Diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe could become more common as human activity destroys habitats and forces disease-carrying wild animals into ever-closer proximity with us, a major study showed on Wednesday. Around 70 percent of human pathogens are zoonotic, meaning they at some point make the leap from animals to humans as with COVID-19. Last year the United Nations panel on biodiversity warned that up to one million species faced extinction as a result of human activity. "This also increases the frequency and intensity of contact between humans and wildlife –- creating the perfect conditions for virus spillover." Conservationists have called for a global ban on wildlife trading in the wake of the pandemic and China has prohibited the consumption of wild animals.

Source: Daily Nation April 08, 2020 13:25 UTC