Forest Transition and Zoonoses Risk

Abstract

Forests influence humans’ life and health in many ways, by regulating specific climatic conditions, oxygen production, global carbon cycle, and by influencing the conditions for social human activities. Forest biodiversity is crucial for maintaining ecological and societal functions. Disturbances in forest vitality and biodiversity cause complex chain of reactions regarding biotic interactions which involve some animal vectors of zoonotic diseases and lead to increased incidences of zoonoses in human population. The disturbance of native forest ecosystems usually occurs through deforestation and landscape modification for other purposes, especially agricultural. Fragmentation of forests and emergence of transitional zones reduce the capacity of ecosystems to self-regulate functions, for example, when food chains between predators and disease vectors are disturbed, leading to emergence of new pathogens. The integration of multiple datasets including land use change by usage of satellite imagery and field data, forest vitality, and biodiversity may contribute to better understanding the dynamics of incidence of some zoonotic diseases. This article aimed to compare ecological datasets with the incidence of Lyme disease and trichinellosis in Serbia for the period 1990–2012.