How bad for humans is wildlife trade? A new study has answers

""There's been a consensus for a long time that the wildlife trade is a risk to human health, but a lot of what we know is from anecdotes.""

""Traded mammals are about 1.5 times as likely to be sources of human diseases than non-traded animals, the researchers report in Science.""

""The longer humans have been interacting with a species, the more viruses we have in common, especially when dealing with illegal animals and live markets.""

""It's a really strong paper that reinforces what we've already kind of known," says Kevin Olival, a disease ecologist at the University of Hawai'i who wasn't involved."

In 2003, a shipment of African rodents led to the first mpox outbreak in the U.S., highlighting risks of wildlife trade. Pathogens can jump from animals to humans through various interactions. Research indicates that traded mammals are 1.5 times more likely to transmit diseases than non-traded species. The longer humans interact with a species, the more viruses are shared. This reinforces existing concerns about the wildlife trade's impact on human health, alongside other factors like climate change and deforestation.

Read at www.npr.org