Wildlife trafficking practices have resulted in the emergence of zoonotic diseases. Exotic wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that involves the removal and shipment of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, and fish all over the world. Traded wild animals are used for bushmeat consumption, unconventional exotic pets, animal skin clothing accessories, home trophy decorations, privately owned zoos, and for traditional medicine practices. Dating back centuries, people from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe have used animal bones, horns, or organs for their believed healing effects on the human body. Wild tigers, rhinos, elephants, pangolins, and certain reptile species are acquired through legal and illegal trade operations in order to continue these historic cultural healing practices. Within the last decade nearly 975 different wild animal taxa groups have been legally and illegally exported out of Africa and imported into areas like China, Japan, Indonesia, the United States, Russia, Europe, and South America.

Consuming or owning exotic animals can propose unexpected and dangerous health risks. A number of animals, wild or domesticated, carry infectious diseases and approximately 75% of wildlife diseases are vector-borne viral zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are complex infections residing in animals and can be transmitted to humans. The emergence of zoonotic diseases usually occurs in three stages. Initially the disease is spread through a series of spillover events between domesticated and wildlife populations living in close quarters. Diseases then spread through series of direct contact methods, indirect contact methods, contaminated foods, or vector-borne transmissions. After one of these transmission methods occurs, the disease then rises exponentially in human populations living in close proximities.

After the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic, whose origins have been linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the acting executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, called for a global ban on wildlife markets to prevent future pandemics. Others have also called for a total ban on the global wildlife trade or for already existing bans to be enforced, in order both to reduce cruelty to animals as well as to reduce health risks to humans, or to implement other disease control intervention measures in lieu of total bans.

One Health perspective Wildlife trade is increasingly addressed through a One Health framework because the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems is closely interconnected. The World Health Organization describes One Health as an integrated, unifying approach that links people, animals, and the environment, and notes that trade in live wild animals can increase the likelihood of disease spillover into humans. In the wildlife trade supply chain, capture, transport, holding, and sale may bring wild animals, domestic animals, and humans into close contact, especially where animal welfare, hygiene, and biosecurity measures are limited. WOAH has similarly emphasized that wildlife health, ecosystem health, and human health should be addressed together, rather than as separate sectors.

Drivers of disease emergence Human activities that alter ecosystems can amplify the disease risks associated with wildlife trade. According to WHO, important stressors include animal trade, agriculture, livestock farming, urbanization, extractive industries, climate change, habitat fragmentation, and encroachment into wild areas. UNEP has likewise described zoonotic emergence as being driven by land-use change, exploitation of wildlife, and intensified contact among people, domestic animals, and wildlife. These pressures can interact with the wildlife trade chain, where animals from different sources and species may be mixed during harvesting, transport, and market sale, creating additional opportunities for pathogen transmission and spillover.

Prevention and risk reduction Recent guidance has increasingly favored risk-based management across the wildlife trade chain rather than a single uniform response. A rapid review commissioned by WOAH found substantial evidence gaps but concluded that disease prevention strategies should be evaluated in relation to feasibility, sustainability, biodiversity impacts, public health protection, and local livelihoods. WOAH's 2024 guidelines for addressing disease risks in wildlife trade propose a high-level framework based on stakeholder engagement, system mapping, hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, risk communication, and monitoring and evaluation. Within a One Health approach, commonly recommended measures include stronger surveillance, improved sanitary and biosecurity standards, reduced high-risk cross-species mixing, protection of ecosystem integrity, and coordination among veterinary, public health, environmental, and trade authorities.

Types of zoonotic disease transmissions Direct contact transmissions occur when humans encounter first hand contaminated feces, urine, water sources, or bodily fluids. Bodily fluid transmission may happen either from ingesting pathogens or through open wound contact. Indirect contact transmissions occur when humans interact within an infected species' habitat. Humans are often exposed to contaminated soils, plants, and surfaces where bacterial germs are present. Contaminated food transmissions occur when humans eat infected bushmeat, vegetables, fruits, or drink contaminated water. Often these food and water supplies are tainted by fecal pellets of infected bats, birds, or monkeys. Vector-borne transmissions occur when individuals are bitten by infected parasites such as ticks or insects like mosquitos and fleas.

Other factors for escalated disease transmissions include climate change, globalization of trade, accelerated logging practices, irrigation increases, sexual activity between individuals, blood transfusions, and urbanization developments near infected ecosystems.

Health risks of zoonotic diseases Exotic wildlife trafficking admits a number of infectious diseases that spell potential life-threatening results for human populations if contracted. Researchers believe eliminating the transmission of infectious diseases is not plausible. Instead, the implementation of health screening and surveillance measures is considered important for minimizing transmission risks among human populations and wildlife species involved in trade, particularly at key points along the trade chain, such as capture, transport, and sale.

Annually, 15.8% of human deaths have been associated with dangerous infectious disease outbreaks linked to exotic trafficking. Researchers, zoologists, and environmentalists determine that financially poor countries in Africa may attribute to nearly 44% of these deaths due to zoonosis related diseases.

Cultural determinants and disease exposure in Africa People in Africa are exposed to an increased risk of contracting and dispatching life-threatening zoonotic infections. The continent is considered a hot spot for emerging disease transmissions for reasons like socio-culture livelihood interests, livestock farming, land use methods, globalization influences, and consumption behavior practices.

Socio-cultural livelihood factors Many Africans make a living from the wildlife trade due to the high market demand for exotic animals. These individuals partaking in poaching activities are able to produce an income by selling to vendors all around the world. However, hunters are highly susceptible to encountering infected droplets, water sources, soils, carcasses, and viral airborne pathogens while traveling through the bush. Once they have successfully hunted and killed the wild animal, they run the risk of blood or bodily fluid transfer from close contact with possible infected species. They're also at an increased risk of harvesting arthropod-borne pathogens carried in ticks. Often ticks can be found on the wild animal or in its surrounding wildlife habitat.

Livestock and land use methods A study conducted in Tanzania revealed major gaps in locals knowledge of zoonotic diseases. Individuals in these pastoral communities acknowledged health symptoms commonly found in both humans and animals, however they did not have a synthesized term for zoonosis and believed pathogens were not life-threatening. Researchers found that the pastoral communities were more concerned with keeping cultural practices of producing cooked meals rather than the potential infections harvested from the animals.

Globalization influence The urbanization of new environments in Africa increases the migration patterns of humans. New settlements and tourist attractions near these wildlife habitats bring vulnerable individuals with no disease immunity closer to areas of diseases.

Consumption behaviors The greatest possibility of contracting deadly zoonotic diseases occurs during the bushmeat cooking process. Cooking exotic bushmeat requires sharp knives, steady handwork, and skilled techniques when correctly butchering an animal. Consumers often purchase bushmeat directly from African poachers. This means they have no way of knowing whether the wild animal is carrying dangerous zoonotic pathogens. On average people cut themselves 38% of the time when butchering bushmeat, allowing for infected bodily fluid transmissions. African women are more likely to contract these dangerous zoonotic pathogens because they are the ones handling and cooking the bushmeat.

Zoonoses in wildlife markets

If sanitation standards are not maintained, live animal markets can transmit zoonoses. Because of the openness, newly introduced animals may come in direct contact with sales clerks, butchers, and customers or to other animals which they would never interact with in the wild. This may allow for some animals to act as intermediate hosts, helping a disease spread to humans.

Due to unhygienic sanitation standards and the connection to the spread of zoonoses and pandemics, critics have grouped live animal markets together with factory farming as major health hazards in China and across the world. In March and April 2020, some reports have said that wildlife markets in Asia, Africa, and in general all over the world are prone to health risks.

Avian influenza H5N1 avian flu outbreaks can be traced to live animal markets where the potential for zoonotic transmission is greatly increased.

COVID-19

The exact origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to be confirmed as of February 2021 and was originally linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China due to reports that two-thirds of the initial cases had direct exposure to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. although a 2021 WHO investigation concluded that the Huanan market was unlikely to be the origin due to the existence of earlier cases. The Huanan market sold "live wolf pups, salamanders, civets, and bamboo rats" amongst other species.

Alternate theories and misinformation emerged in January that the viruses were instead artificially created in a laboratory, but these claims were largely rejected by scientists and news outlets as unfounded rumours and conspiracy theories. In April 2020, United States intelligence officials launched examinations into unverified reports that the virus may have originated from accidental exposure of scientists studying coronaviruses in bats at the BSL-4-capable Wuhan Institute of Virology rather than a wildlife market.