Wildlife Trade Fuels Disease Spread to Humans, New Study Warns
The global wildlife trade has been directly linked to major disease outbreaks, with a new study issuing a stark warning that it significantly elevates the risk of pathogen spillover from animals to humans. Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence indicating that traded mammals are substantially more likely to share viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites with people compared to non-traded species.
Key Findings from the Study
An extensive analysis of 40 years of global wildlife trade data has revealed that traded mammals are approximately 1.5 times more likely to share pathogens with humans. The study further discovered that the longer a species remains in trade, the greater the number of pathogens it tends to share with humans, averaging one additional pathogen for every decade of trade exposure.
This pattern suggests that prolonged and repeated contact between humans and wild animals within trade systems heightens the risk of future disease emergence, including potential epidemics and pandemics. The global wildlife trade involves close human interaction with animals sold as pets, bushmeat, trophies, and for use in traditional medicine, fur, and biomedical research.
Risks Across the Supply Chain
Scientists have noted that these interactions occur across multiple stages of the supply chain, including harvesting, breeding, transport, market sale, and consumption. Each stage creates opportunities for pathogens to cross species barriers, facilitating the spread of diseases.
The study also showed that traded species have a 50 percent higher probability of sharing at least one human-infecting pathogen. Live-animal markets pose an even greater risk, with species sold alive sharing about 1.5 times more pathogens with humans than those traded only as products such as meat or fur.
Illegal Trade and Pathogen Burden
Illegally traded species were found to carry a higher pathogen burden than those traded through legal channels. To arrive at these findings, researchers led by Dr. Jérôme Gippet of the University of Fribourg and the University of Lausanne analyzed global wildlife trade records from sources including CITES, LEMIS, and seized wildlife datasets. They linked these records to a global database of mammal-pathogen associations.
The researchers concluded that traded wildlife species are significantly more likely to act as reservoirs for zoonotic diseases, though they noted that shared pathogens do not always result in direct transmission to humans. However, they warned that expanding wildlife trade increases opportunities for new pathogens to emerge in humans, raising the risk of future outbreaks.
Call for Stronger Regulations
The study calls for stronger surveillance of wildlife and animal-derived products, improved regulation of trade systems, and reduced overall trade volumes to limit human-wildlife disease transmission risks. According to the researchers, existing global agreements such as CITES focus mainly on species conservation but do not adequately address public health risks linked to pathogen spillover.
The study further noted that even indirect consumption choices, such as products derived from wildlife, contribute to the broader chain of disease risk, as human exposure begins from hunting and processing stages. Researchers stressed that limiting unnecessary contact between humans and wild animals is essential to reducing the likelihood of future infectious disease outbreaks.
Nigerian Context and Awareness
In Nigeria, the Director-General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Prof. Innocent Barikor, has highlighted that the recent handover of pangolins in Kano and Akwa Ibom reflects growing public awareness of wildlife conservation. This development underscores the importance of local efforts in addressing the broader global challenges posed by wildlife trade and disease transmission.
