The Britannica Encyclopedia writes a good entry about Foot-And-Mouth Disease (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212824/foot-and-mouth-disease-FMD), the most economically devastating livestock disease in the world. Because the virus is so easily transmitted, ranchers and even governments must go at great length to contain outbreaks. They do this by disinfecting automobiles, cleaning roads, and monitoring traffic. Although this disease is not common in the United States, it is what ranchers in Latin America and the world fear the most.

A professor from the University of Michigan’s school of Public Health made an interesting connection between expanding road networks and diarrheal pathogens in the remote rainforests of northern Ecuador. His study indicated that higher rates of infection (up to 8 times higher in some cases) were found at closer distances to the main roads, and showed that villages better connected by the new road networks also experienced higher rates of infection. An InFocus article on the University of Michigan’s website focused on his study and noted that the study of epidemiology and the spread of disease needs to account for broad socio-economic, ecological, and economic patterns.

Over the past several years a new type of disease has been decimating bat colonies in the northeastern part of the United States. Researchers have found entire colonies of brown bats dead in their caves with the telltale white fungus on their noses that is characteristic of of this disease. This disease, which has become known as White nose syndrome is estimated to have wiped out up to 90% of Connecticut’s brown bat population. What is more concerning is that it is spreading. This map illustrates the spread of White nose syndrome over the past few years. It i interesting to note that the disease seems to be spreading along the physical barrier of the Appellation mountains. To learn more about White nose syndrome visit the US Fish and wildlife service website.

Road intrusions into natural habitat space facilitate increased human activity in the area, due to the increased ease of access. When humans arrive, they bring their sicknesses and germs with them. This video explains how efforts to increase human tourist traffic are introducing the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania to fatal illnesses, and can serve as a valuable case study in road’s impacts on the health of wildlife.

This audio clip by NPR, New Roads in the Amazon may Deliver Disease, discusses how malaria is spread by the development of roads in the Amazon.  Interviews with researchers in the village of Mazan explain how roads can create corridors for malaria-carrying mosquitoes to travel to isolated villages.  When a local government is blindsided by the positives of building a road, unexpected dangerous consequences can arise form acting too quickly.

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