According to experts, the coronavirus outbreak comes from the animal world.
It is human activity that enabled the virus to jump to people.
The specialists are also warning that if human activities continue at this pace, the world will suffer from many other pandemics of similar nature in the future.
Important value additions:
Zoonoses
Zoonoses is the name given to diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
They are not new.
Tuberculosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, malaria, etc., are all zoonoses.
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 60% of human infectious diseases originate from animals.
Also, 75% of emerging diseases such as Ebola, HIV, avian flu, Zika, or SARS originate from animals.
The emergence of such diseases is often associated with environmental changes or ecological disturbances, such as increase in human settlement, encroachments into forests and other habitats, etc.
