Lose biodiversity and gain diseases.

Australasian Business Intelligence, June, 2006

Jun 16, 2006 (New Scientist - ABIX via COMTEX) -- Biodiversity is good for public health. Andy Dobson, an ecologist at Princeton University, gives as an example the white-footed mouse, which lives in small patches of forest and grassland and carries Lyme disease. Such environments cannot support large roaming predators, allowing small prey animals to thrive. The absence of predators results in the large number of the mice. Similarly, the loss of biodiversity leads to an increase in the cases of malaria and tick-borne encephalitis.

Publication Date: 10 June 2006

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

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