The disappearance very fast of tropical forests brings with it numerous side effects, one of which is the prosperity of the bacterium that causes the skin ulcer.
A new study suggests that the loss of tropical rainforests increases the risk of people being exposed to a terrible disease, called BURULI ulcer, caused by bacteria "Mycobacterium ulcerans", which causes skin lesions and bone deformities.
Aaron Morris, a researcher at Imperial College London and the leader of this study, claims that the bacterium thrives in a wide variety of organisms, especially in insects living in the freshwater environment. A team also found that this bacterium is growing in areas affected by human intervention, where many species have disappeared, and the food chain has been simplified. Simply said, this bacterium take refuge into the remaining species.
However, the relationship between the disappearance of forests and the spread of this bacteria is not a linear one. As urbanization intensifies and species become less numerous, and so hosts for bacteria become less.
This hypothesis is confirmed by a similar study. Kate Jones and her team from University College of London, who studied Lassa fever from Africa, say that ecosystem modification has led to the uncontrolled spread of rodents that can carry Lyme disease.
This idea has an important stake, given the accelerated urbanization of many areas around the globe. Imbalances in the food chain must be regarded with the utmost consideration. Viruses, bacteria and microbes can be more resistant to human action than other types of organisms, both through their ability to "migrate," having the possibility to find other hosts, and the difficulty with which they can be observed.
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"The rapid destruction of tropical forests threatens global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. Many tropical protected areas are vulnerable to the impact of human activities", they said Australian scientists,and this in conditions as tropical rainforests are considere the areas with the richest diversity on Terra/Earth.
Is really impossible to exploit the forest without destroying tropical forests?
