Climate change making parasites nastier
Source: Agencies |
August 14, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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PARASITES look set to become more virulent because of climate change, according to a study showing that frogs suffer more infections from a fungus when exposed to unexpected swings in temperatures.
Parasites, which include tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria and funguses, may be more nimble at adapting to climatic shifts than the animals they live on since they are smaller and grow more quickly.
"Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their hosts," Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States said, based on findings about frogs and a deadly skin fungus.
"We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease," he said of the report he led with colleagues at the University of South Florida. It was published in yesterday's edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
A United Nations experts' panel says that global warming is expected to add to human suffering from more heatwaves, floods, fires and droughts, and have effects such as spreading the range of some diseases.
And climate change is also likely to mean more swings in temperatures. "Few ... studies have considered the effects of climate variability or predictability on disease, despite it being likely that hosts and parasites will have differential responses to climatic shifts," they wrote.
Parasites, which include tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria and funguses, may be more nimble at adapting to climatic shifts than the animals they live on since they are smaller and grow more quickly.
"Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their hosts," Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States said, based on findings about frogs and a deadly skin fungus.
"We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease," he said of the report he led with colleagues at the University of South Florida. It was published in yesterday's edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
A United Nations experts' panel says that global warming is expected to add to human suffering from more heatwaves, floods, fires and droughts, and have effects such as spreading the range of some diseases.
And climate change is also likely to mean more swings in temperatures. "Few ... studies have considered the effects of climate variability or predictability on disease, despite it being likely that hosts and parasites will have differential responses to climatic shifts," they wrote.
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