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Literature detail

Wildlife trade drives animal-to-human pathogen transmission over 40 years.

Jérôme M W Gippet1,2 Colin J Carlson3 Tristan Klaftenberger2 Mattéo Schweizer2 Evan A Eskew4 Meredith L Gore5 Cleo Bertelsmeier2
Affiliations 5 institutions
  1. Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
  2. Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  3. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
  4. Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA.
  5. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
PMID 41955375 2026 Science eng ppublish
PubMed DOI Browse context

Article

Publication summary

The wildlife trade affects a quarter of terrestrial vertebrates and creates opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, but its precise role in shaping animal-human pathogen exchange remains unclear. In our analysis of 40 years of global wildlife trade data, we show that traded mammals are 1.5-fold as likely to share pathogens with humans as nontraded mammals, and that illegal and live-animal trade further exacerbate pathogen sharing. Time spent in trade predicts the number of zoonotic pathogens that a wildlife species hosts. On average, a species shares an additional pathogen with humans for every 10 years it is traded.

Animals, Wild Mammals Wildlife Trade Zoonoses Animals Humans

Structured evidence records

Evidence records

2 total
Spillover Event 1 records
Spillover Event Extraction confidence 0.90
Key finding

Traded mammals were significantly more likely to share pathogens with humans, indicating that wildlife trade contributes to animal-to-human spillover.

Virus
Not specified
Location
global
Supporting text

The wildlife trade affects a quarter of terrestrial vertebrates and creates opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission... we show that traded mammals are 1.5-fold as likely to share pathogens with humans as nontraded mammals.

Method
comparative statistical analysis
Study design
data analysis
Transmission direction
animal-to-human
Geographic raw
global
Zoonotic Surveillance 1 records
Zoonotic Surveillance Extraction confidence 0.75
Key finding

Traded mammals were found to share zoonotic pathogens with humans more frequently than nontraded mammals, based on global wildlife trade surveillance data spanning 40 years.

Virus
Not specified
Host
Mammalia
Location
global
Supporting text

In our analysis of 40 years of global wildlife trade data, we show that traded mammals are 1.5-fold as likely to share pathogens with humans as nontraded mammals, and that illegal and live-animal trade further exacerbate pathogen sharing.

Method
data analysis
Geographic raw
global