Could Uganda’s Budongo forest be ground zero for the next global pandemic?

LESS than half a kilometer from Aliyo Sarile’s tobacco farm, the wild frontier of Budongo Forest rises, a wall of emerald canopy and untamed vegetation marking a boundary.

Each dawn, Aliyo wakes to nature’s orchestra: birds chirping, chimpanzees hooting through the trees, and baboons barking commands — a soundtrack that registers as neither nuisance nor entertainment in his daily life.

But the forest’s balance has shifted.

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