Infectious Diseases, Livestock, and Climate: A Vicious Cycle?

Vanessa O Ezenwa; David J Civitello; Brandon T Barton; Daniel J Becker; Maris Brenn-White; Aimée T Classen; Sharon L Deem; Zoë E Johnson; Susan Kutz; Matthew Malishev; Rachel M Penczykowski; Daniel L Preston; J Trevor Vannatta; Amanda M Koltz

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.08.012

Infectious Diseases, Livestock, and Climate: A Vicious Cycle?

Trends Ecol Evol. 2020 Nov;35(11):959-962. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.08.012. Epub 2020 Oct 7.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Odum School of Ecology and Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30606, USA. Electronic address: vezenwa@uga.edu.
² Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA.
⁴ Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
⁵ Institute for Conservation Medicine, Saint Louis Zoo, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
⁶ The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109, USA.
⁷ Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4Z6, Canada.
⁸ Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
⁹ Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

Abstract

Ruminant livestock are a significant contributor to global methane emissions. Infectious diseases have the potential to exacerbate these contributions by elevating methane outputs associated with animal production. With the increasing spread of many infectious diseases, the emergence of a vicious climate-livestock-disease cycle is a looming threat.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Climate
Communicable Diseases* / epidemiology
Communicable Diseases* / veterinary
Livestock*
Methane

Substances

Methane