{"id":1831,"date":"2016-07-23T17:27:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T17:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daphnia.ecology.uga.edu\/drakelab\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2017-09-18T18:21:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T18:21:52","slug":"global-patterns-of-zoonotic-disease-in-mammals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daphnia.ecology.uga.edu\/drakelab\/?p=1831","title":{"rendered":"Global patterns of zoonotic disease in mammals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"trepar\"The majority of infectious diseases currently emerging in\u00a0humans originated in mammals. Yet we still know very little about the global patterns of mammal-to-human pathogen transmission. As a first step, researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the University of Georgia have assembled world maps of what\u2019s on record about mammal-to-human diseases. The work, which aims to question whether it is possible to predict the emergence of new zoonotic diseases, was published in the June issue of\u00a0Trends in Parasitology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The maps include data on all 27 orders of terrestrial mammals, including rabid bats, camels carrying Middle East respiratory syndrome, the hoofed relatives of livestock that pass on food-borne diseases, and many different kinds (more than 2,000 species) of rodents. Outbreaks of diseases caused by pathogens that originate in non-human hosts (called zoonoses) are believed to be inherently unpredictable, but the maps reveal understudied patterns.<\/p>\n

Some key findings\u00a0include:<\/p>\n