Pandemics and novel diseases are perennial threats to human survival. People, wildlife and livestock carry a wide range of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. Close contact creates opportunities for pathogens to jump between species. To assess public health risks of massive legal and illegal trade in wildlife, an interdisciplinary team delved into trade records on thousands of species spanning the last 40 years. They focused on mammals. The researchers found that worldwide trade in wild mammals, as well as their parts and products, creates more opportunities for pathogens to mutate and jump from animals into humans over time — and poses a serious public health threat, conclusions they recently published in the journal Science. For decades, scientists and virologists have warned that the incidence of spillover is rising in a more crowded, interconnected world shaped by travel and trade. Many of the most dangerous or deadly outbreaks of contagious disease in recent history originated in animals, including mpox (1958), Marburg virus (1967), Ebola (1976), HIV/AIDS (first clinical evidence 1981) and COVID-19 (2020). A rescued chimpanzee receives veterinary care in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after being confiscated from the illegal pet trade there. As close human relatives, apes share a number of diseases with humans. Image by Cate Twining-Ward. Animals and pathogens shipped worldwide The global wildlife trade creates repeated opportunities for animals, pathogens and people to come into close contact and share germs. Animals are legally shipped around the world for food. They’re sold as pets. Their parts are used in…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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