No need to beat around the bushmeat: The role of wildlife trade and conservation initiatives in the emergence of zoonotic diseases

Abstract

Wildlife species constitute a vast and uncharted reservoir of zoonotic pathogens that can pose a severe threat to global human health. Zoonoses have become increasingly impactful over the past decades, and the expanding trade in wildlife is unarguably among the most significant risk factors for their emergence. Despite several warnings from the academic community about the spillover risks associated with wildlife trade, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underlines that current policies on the wildlife industry are deficient. Conservation initiatives, rather than practices that attempt to eradicate zoonotic pathogens or the wild species that harbour them, could play a vital role in preventing the emergence of life-threatening zoonoses. This review explores how wildlife conservation initiatives could effectively reduce the risk of new zoonotic diseases emerging from the wildlife trade by integrating existing literature on zoonotic diseases and risk factors associated with wildlife trade. Conservation should mainly aim at reducing human-wildlife interactions in the wildlife trade by protecting wildlife habitats and providing local communities with alternative protein sources. In addition, conservation should focus on regulating the legal wildlife trade and education about disease transfer and safer hunting and butchering methods. By uniting efforts for wildlife protection and universal concern for preventing zoonotic epidemics, conservation initiatives have the potential to safeguard both biodiversity, animal welfare, and global human health security.