Ecosystem perspectives are needed to manage zoonotic risks under climate change

Climate change and biodiversity loss are among this century’s greatest threats to human health and are exposing people worldwide to increasing food and water insecurity, extreme weather, pollution, and infectious disease threats.1 2 Zoonotic infectious diseases are situated at this nexus between environmental change, ecosystems, and health. Zoonotic pathogens and parasites are maintained in an animal reservoir and regularly or sporadically spill over to cause disease in humans,3 sometimes leading to sustained human-to-human or vectorborne epidemics (eg, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoV), Ebola, plague) but more commonly to endemic or sporadic disease (eg, leptospirosis, helminthiases, Lyme disease, hantavirus diseases)