Biodiversity loss has been found to be the biggest environmental driver of infectious disease outbreaks, making them higher risk and more widespread, a new study has found. 

Often originating in wildlife, the rise in infectious diseases has been found to have ‘significant’ correlation to socioeconomic, environmental and ecological factors.

In a new meta-analysis, published in the journal Nature, researchers identified biodiversity loss as the greatest contributor to the rising risk of outbreaks – followed by climate change and the introduction of non-native species. 

The study focused on five ‘global change drivers’ – biodiversity loss, climate change, chemical pollution, non-native species, and habitat loss. Researchers found that all except habitat loss increases disease spread – results remained the same across human and non-human diseases. 

It was found that urbanisation also decreased the spread, with lead researcher, Professor Jason Rohr from the University of Notre Dame in the US, saying: “In urban areas with lots of concrete, there is a much smaller number of species that can thrive in that environment. From a human disease perspective, there is often greater sanitation and health infrastructure than in rural environments.