A report released by the United Nations warns that if the deforestation and killing of animals continues, many epidemics, such as coronavirus, will follow.

Earthlings must be prepared for that. The report was prepared by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on future zoonotic epidemics. An epidemic that spreads from a variety of animals to humans is called zoonotic.

The report titled ‘Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Disease and How to Break the Chain of Transmission’ states that animal-to-human disease has increased in the last few years.

Diseases like Ebola, SARS, MERS, HIV, Rift Valley Fever, Lhasa Fever, Lyme Disease etc. have been present in animals for thousands of years. But it was only after humans came in contact with it that it entered humans. Earlier it was thought that a major epidemic would occur only once in a century, but this is now disproved.

“We should open our eyes after the coronavirus,” said Inger Andersen, director of UNEP. The constant deforestation has increased the contact between humans and animals. That is how humans feed various animals.

For these two reasons, the virus-bacteria that have been dormant in animals for years have a chance to enter the human body and become active after entering. Meat production on Earth has increased by 260 percent in the last 50 years.

China is also at the forefront of generating and spreading epidemics. According to the report, avian influenza in 1996, bird flu in 1996, Nipah in 1998, SARS in 2003, etc., spread the disease from China and especially from Guangdong province of China. More than 60 percent of the 1400 types of insects that affect the human body come from animals.