Wildlife diseases poised to spread northwards as climate changes - study

FILE PHOTO: A bull elk makes its way through the field as corn is harvested at the Kenison Farms in Levan, Utah, October 5, 2013. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - As the world’s climate warms, parasite-carried wildlife diseases will move north, with animals in cold far-north and high-altitude regions expected to suffer the most dramatic increases, warns a study to be published on Friday in the journal Science.

The study projects increasing spread over the next five decades of wildlife diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses and infectious worms. There are serious implications for humans, said co-author Jason Rohr of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.