Research overview: climate-driven disease range shifts affecting wild cats

Climate change can expand the range of pathogens, parasites, and disease vectors, with potential consequences for wild cat health. This overview surveys how warming may alter the distribution of tick-borne and other diseases, vector ranges, and pathogen transmission relevant to felids and their prey, and the difficulty of attributing disease emergence to climate. It reviews examples from prey systems, such as the rabbit diseases central to Iberian lynx, and the broader concern about novel host-pathogen contacts. The synthesis frames disease as an indirect but potentially significant climate pathway, explaining why monitoring wildlife health is part of anticipating climate impacts on cats, since shifting disease can affect predators directly or through the prey they depend on.