What is it about?
This study looked at how changes in the climate—things like temperature, rainfall and humidity—affect diseases that can jump from animals to humans (called zoonotic diseases). The researchers examined evidence from hundreds of published studies covering many parts of the world and dozens of different diseases. They found that climate factors often influence the risk of these animal-to-human diseases, but the way they do so varies a lot depending on the disease and location. In many cases higher temperatures or changes in rainfall were linked with increased disease risk, but the patterns weren’t the same for all diseases. This means that climate change will affect zoonotic diseases in complex and varied ways rather than in a simple, uniform pattern. Better understanding these relationships will help scientists and health officials anticipate and manage disease risks under a changing climate.
Featured Image
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash
Why is it important?
What makes this study timely is that it brings together, for the first time, evidence across hundreds of zoonotic diseases to ask a simple but important question: how often, and in what ways, does climate actually matter for disease risk? Rather than focusing on a few well-known examples, the study shows that climate sensitivity is widespread but highly uneven—some diseases respond strongly to climate changes, while many others show little or no clear effect. This challenges the common assumption that climate change will affect all infectious diseases in a similar way. By identifying where evidence is strong, where it is weak, and where major gaps remain, this work helps prioritise future research, surveillance, and preparedness efforts. In practical terms, it can help policymakers and public health agencies focus resources on the diseases most likely to change as the climate continues to warm, rather than relying on broad, one-size-fits-all assumptions.
Perspectives
This paper began as a master’s thesis project, motivated by a sense that animal-borne zoonotic diseases were often overlooked in discussions about climate and health, which tend to focus more heavily on human-to-human, vector-borne infections. For me, the value of the work lies less in any single result and more in stepping back to ask whether the evidence base we rely on is actually balanced and representative of the full range of climatic-linked disease risks. It was particularly rewarding to see a student-led project grow into a broader synthesis that challenges some common assumptions and highlights where our understanding is still thin. I hope the paper encourages researchers and decision-makers to take zoonotic diseases more seriously in climate-health discussions, and to recognise how much remains unknown.
David Redding
Natural History Museum, London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Climate sensitivity is widely but unevenly spread across zoonotic diseases, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2422851122.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
