Prevention of zoonotic diseases: what role for environmental policies.

Summary The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the importance of health problems at the interface between humans, animals and the environment: nearly two thirds of human infectious diseases come from pathogens shared with wild or domestic animals. While the number of people suffering from infectious diseases is decreasing, especially in Western regions, paradoxically the number of infectious epidemics continues to grow. The role played by the degradation of ecosystems, in particular deforestation, in the phenomenon of "jumping the species barrier" is questioned, as well as, more generally, that of our lifestyles (diets and food chains, trade...). Thus, this pandemic suggests not only to re-evaluate existing public policies of sanitary control and management, but also to see how they should be completed at the level of economic behavior orientation. In order to prevent future epidemics and reduce their impacts, it is important to understand the mechanisms that generate epidemics and the increase in their frequency or severity, and in particular the extent to which global changes and anthropogenic factors modify the situation. If it is difficult, even illusory, to prevent animals from developing diseases that can be transmitted to humans, and if it is necessary to control their appearance and to manage the sanitary and economic consequences, one of the ways to reduce the risks of epidemics would be to act upstream. In this respect, the preservation of natural habitats, the reduction of meat consumption, the reduction of the size of intensive livestock farms and the cessation of the marketing (legal or not) of wild animal meat would constitute coherent and effective measures for tomorrow's "one health" public health policies.