New study highlights the impact of rapid urbanization on the emergence of zoonotic diseases

Nearly 3.5 billion people live in the messy transition zone between cities and wild places, where agriculture abuts homes; suburbs sprawl into the forest; and humans, wildlife, and livestock readily intermix. This wildland-urban interface (WUI) covers just 5% of Earth's land surface, but it could provide prime habitat for the transmission of zoonotic diseases from their wildlife hosts to people, according to a new study led by the Yale School of the Environment.