Avian influenza

Like human influenza, it occurs naturally in wild birds, often with no dire consequences. Shed by infected birds feces, fish might contract the virus from others. H5N1-is a major concern for the world's governments and health organizations, it is deadly to domestic and wild birds, as well as humans, and has the potential to go into a infection that can spread from human to human. Information shows that the movement of H5N1 from region's largely increased by the trade in fish, but moves in climate, like winter storms and droughts. It can effect normal movements of wild birds, and both wild and domestic bird populations into greater contact.


Babesia species are examples of tick-borne diseases that affect domestic animals and wildlife, and is an emerging disease in humans. Babesia may not always cause severe problems by itself but when infections are severe due to large numbers of ticks, the host becomes more immune to other infectious diseases. This has been seen in large die-offs of lions in East Africa due to canine distemper. Climate factors fostered heavy infestations of ticks on wild buffalo and large populations or infection of lions. The lions then became more immune to infections with the distemper virus. In Europe and North America, the disease is becoming more common in humans, also linked with tick distributions. Diseases that have previously been thought to have limited impact, such as babesiosis, needs to be watched closely in a changing climate to assess how environmental conditions may tip the scale and cause more significant impacts on ecosystems, animals, and people.


Cholera is a water-borne diarrheal disease affecting humans mainly in the developing world. It is caused by a bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, which live in small organisms in gross water sources and might also be present in raw shellfish, like oysters. Once you have it, cholera quickly becomes deadly. It is highly temperature dependent, and increases in water temperature are directly correlated with occurrence of the disease. Rising global temperatures dealing with climate change are expected to increase incidence of this disease.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus and its closely similar to Marburg fever virus-easily kill humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, and there is currently no known cure. Scientists continue to work on finding the source of the disease and to develop vaccines for protection. There is significant evidence that outbreaks of both diseases are related to unusual variations in rainfall/dry season patterns. As climate change disrupts seasonal patterns, we may expect to see outbreaks of these deadly diseases occurring in new locations and with more frequency.

Intestinal and external parasites

Parasites are widespread throughout terrestrial and aquatic environments. As temperatures and precipitation levels shift, survival of parasites in the environment will increase in many places, infecting an increasing number of humans and animals. Many species of parasites, spread between wildlife and humans. It's spread by the common raccoon and is deadly to many other species of wildlife and humans. It causes death in its natural host-the critically endangered giant panda. Monitoring of parasite species and loads in wildlife and livestock help us identify transmission of these infections between domestic and wild animals and humans.

Lyme disease

This is caused by a bacterium that is transmitted to humans through tick bites. This will shift as a result of climate change, bringing Lyme disease into new regions to infect more animals and people. However, effects of the disease on wildlife have not been recorded, human-induced changes in the environment and on population patterns of animals such as white-tailed deer that can carry ticks greatly affect the spread of this disease.


Plague is one of the oldest infectious diseases known it still causes significant death rates in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans in specific locations. Spread by rodents and their fleas. Moves in temperatures and rainfall are expected to change the spread of rodent populations around the world, which would impact the range of rodent-born diseases, like plague.

Vanessa: Nice information. There's a lot of things I didnt know about. :)

Red tides

Harmful blooms off world coasts create toxins that are deadly to both humans and wildlife. These occurrences-commonly called "red tides" - cause mass fish kills, marine mammal strandings penguin and seabird mortality, and human sickness and death from breve toxins, Dominic acid, and intoxication Same events in freshwater are caused by a species of Cyanobacteria and have resulted in animal die-offs in Africa. Altered temperatures or food-web dynamics resulting from climate change will have unpredictable impacts on the occurrences of this worldwide phenomenon. Effects of harmful algal blooms on sea life are often the first indicators that such an event is taking place

Jack Koehl, very informational good pictures