The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases

Emerging infectious diseases are a hallmark of the Anthropocene 1 , 2 . Human-driven ecosystem changes and human–wildlife–livestock contact can drive the emergence of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases 3 , 4 , 5 , but how much these processes shape landscapes of outbreak risk is poorly understood, beyond a few well-studied systems 6 , 7 , 8 . Here we consolidate 58,319 outbreak event records for 32 diseases and systematically test how 16 hypothesized social and environmental drivers impact outbreak geographies, while accounting for detection and reporting biases. We show that outbreak risks are typically highest in mosaic landscapes where people and livestock live alongside forests and fragmented ecosystems. These combined factors, along with long-term declines in precipitation, share strong impacts across several vector-borne diseases (for example, dengue, Lyme disease and zoonotic arboviruses).