Diseases & conditions

Study: Wildlife Trade Raises Human Disease Risk

Is wildlife trade the biggest pandemic threat or is deforestation the true driver of zoonotic disease?

APR 10·Updated APR 12

Study: Wildlife Trade Raises Human Disease Risk

Story

Above: This pangolin was confiscated from a smuggling ring by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Kuala Lumpur in August 2002. Image credit: Jimin Lai/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

A study published in the journal Science on Thursday analyzed 40 years of legal and illegal wildlife trade data and found that traded wild mammals are 1.5 times more likely to share infectious agents with humans than non-traded species.
PHYS
EurekAlert!
Of 2,079 traded mammal species examined, 41% were found to share at least one pathogen with humans, compared with just 6.4% of non-traded mammal species.
Science
Scientific American
The study found that the longer a species remains in trade, the greater the disease risk — on average, a wild mammal species shares one additional pathogen with humans for every decade it is present in the global wildlife market.
NPR
ABC Australia
Animals traded live, such as exotic pets, carry a higher risk of pathogen transmission to humans than those traded as products. A 2003 mpox outbreak in the United States was linked to a shipment of exotic African rodents sold at a pet store in Illinois.
NPR
Nature
Researchers noted that consumer exposure to pathogens typically occurs early in the trade chain, during hunting, skinning or transport, rather than at the point of purchase. Illegal trade was also associated with elevated spillover risk.
Science
News Medical
The study's authors called for stronger biosurveillance of wildlife and animal products, noting that the main international agreement governing wildlife trade focuses on preventing extinction rather than disease transmission.
PHYS
ABC Australia

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

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PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Wildlife trade is a ticking time bomb for public health — traded mammals are 50% more likely to share diseases with humans, and the risk compounds the longer a species stays in circulation. Illegal trade and live animal markets are the worst offenders, packing animals together in conditions that practically manufacture the next pandemic. Exotic pet trends fueled by social media are making this worse, and without serious enforcement and policy reform, another COVID-scale disaster is inevitable.

Yale E360

Bioengineer.org

WHO on X

Narrative B

Although wildlife trade contributes to zoonotic spillover, blaming wildlife trade alone misses the bigger picture — deforestation and biodiversity loss are the real engines driving zoonotic spillover by pushing humans deeper into animal habitats. When forests are cleared for farming or mining, disease reservoirs such as bats and rodents thrive while natural buffers disappear, creating ideal spillover conditions. Fixing pandemic risk means tackling land use and habitat destruction, not just cracking down on animal markets.

World Wildlife Fund

PNAS