Clearing forests makes room for farms – and disease outbreaks

Send a text Farmers need land to grow their crops, and in many parts of the world, that means clearing forests. That’s especially true in the Amazon region in South America. Crops just won’t grow under the thick forest canopy, so a new banana plantation means clearing trees. This has all sorts of effects on the ecosystem and researchers are seeing a new one. A virus called Oropouche was identified back in the 1950s, but it was pretty rare. Like so many viruses, it causes headaches, body aches...