Peru project
This project is mainly focused on determined the effect that deforestation is provoking on Amazon diversity. Factors such as deforestation, the invasion of invasive species and the loss of biodiversity are key factors in the increase of Emerging Infectious Diseases. Given that currently the distribution of many species is altered by human factors such as alteration of habitats, accidental dispersion or intentional introduction of exotic species as well as the global effects of climate change. These rapid changes cause drastic variations between hosts - vectors - parasites. An example of this was the dispersion of smallpox by the first European colonizers in the Americas, which could cause up to 90% mortality in the indigenous population.
Consequently, rapid perturbations in the range of species distribution represent a great opportunity for pathogens to vary and infect new hosts, which in turn are without adaptive changes and without developed defenses against new pathogens, in a process called Ecological fitting (EF). These changes in hosts and transmission areas are the starting point of Emerging Infectious Diseases, which have devastating results.