A scientific team led by a researcher at the Doñana Biological Station – CSIC, in collaboration with the Kalahari Meerkat Project, shows that ongoing climate change can increase disease outbreaks.
The study has been carried out with 22 years of weekly demographic data from more than 1000 female and 1000 male wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in the Kalahari Desert.

Pandemics as Covid 19 and biological invasions have much in common. They are often linked by the same global change drivers, and they are showing similar features. An international research team, led by the Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), has investigated the tight relationships between infectious diseases causing epidemics and biological invasions.

The epidemiological cycle of zoonotic phlebotomine?borne Leishmania infantum is a complex system in which domestic animals and wildlife interact and participate in its maintenance and transmission. In this study, entomological surveillance, xenomonitoring of L. infantum and identification of host feeding sources of engorged females were combined to investigate the potential contribution of a periurban wildlife park to leishmaniosis in neighbouring residential areas.