America's massive imports of millions of animals fuel risk of pandemics like Covid-19, warns report
The US imported nearly 23M whole animals, parts, samples and products made from bats, primates and rodents — animals that harbor 75% of known zoonotic viruses — over a recent five-year period, reveals a new study. The findings underscore that the US cannot avoid responsibility for disease emergence in other regions of the world that is fueled by the wildlife trade, according to authors from the Center for Biological Diversity, US, a non-profit conservation organization. They emphasize that the US demand plays a significant role in the global wildlife trade and this trade risks deadly global pandemics like Covid-19, besides driving the extinction crisis.
Zoonotic viruses are pathogens that spread from animals to people. Infectious diseases cause about a quarter of all human deaths annually and almost 60% of infectious diseases are zoonotic. The current report warns that wildlife trade creates ideal conditions for the emergence of new zoonotic diseases — including the virus causing Covid-19 — that could fuel the next pandemic.
"Many people in the US wrongly believe zoonotic diseases stem only from foreign live wildlife markets and consumption. But US commercial demand for wildlife products is one of the largest drivers of wildlife exploitation and trade across the globe. By putting species that aren’t normally near each other in contact while stressed, the wildlife trade creates the perfect conditions for new diseases to emerge and infect people. By fueling this trade, US demand for wildlife products increases the risk of another deadly pandemic as well as animal extinctions around the globe," say investigators.
They caution, "As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates, human health is gravely threatened by pathogens that pass from wildlife, livestock or pets to people. These zoonotic diseases do not recognize national boundaries. Research shows that a disease harbored in a person or animal can travel halfway around the globe in under 24 hours by airplane. Thus, it matters less where a disease emerges than why it emerges."
The findings
According to researchers, globally wildlife is traded for pets, luxury foods, fashion, décor and medicine, and the US consumes about 20% of the global wildlife market. "Despite its significant wildlife imports, the US screens or tests virtually no imports for diseases, and only a handful of wildlife are banned from entering the country," writes the team.
The analysis indicates that commercial sale to US consumers is among the top three reasons bat, primate and rodent parts, products, samples, and animals are imported. The most common commercial imports were paperweights made with bats encased in acrylic, primate skulls for décor, and rodent-fur fishing flies. This demand for wildlife parts for décor and hobbies drives the exploitation of primarily wild-caught bats and rodents and many wild primates, emphasizes the study.
The team found that over the most recent five-year period for which data are available (2010-2014), the US imported 96,475 bats and bat parts, including live and dead animals, skeletons, skulls, bat parts sold as jewelry, meat, skins, trim and hunting trophies, and 2,068,328 primates and primate parts, including live and dead animals, skulls, products (such as boots), milliliters of blood, skins and hunting trophies. An estimated 20,784,238 rodents and rodent parts, including live animals, hair, and hair products (such as fishing flies and paintbrushes), leather products, garments, skins and hunting trophies were also imported.
"The voracious US appetite for these imports wipes out wildlife and breeds disease. Bats, primates, and rodents are amazing animals that naturally harbor diseases. When we exploit them through trade and habitat infringement, those diseases can infect us. The insatiable demand for wildlife products in the US is a dangerous problem that can’t be ignored,” writes study author Tanya Sanerib, the Center’s international legal director.
Most of the imported bats and rodents were captured from the wild — 93% and 90%, respectively — while about 21% of the primates were wild-sourced, as opposed to coming from captivity or other nonwild sources. “New diseases are emerging at an increasing rate as more people enter new habitats and hunt down previously isolated animals. These same practices are also driving the loss of species at more than 100 times the natural rate. By ending wildlife trade and decreasing demand for wildlife, we are not just protecting human health but also species, their habitat and our planet,” say scientists.
According to the authors, very few of these imported animals were alive when they entered the US: 1% of bats and 4% of rodents and primates. They explain that while dead animals and animal parts present less risk of disease transmission upon entry into the country, the production of these parts and products shifts the risk of disease emergence to other countries where wildlife is collected, transported, and slaughtered before export. This risk is primarily outsourced to the developing world and China, with a few exceptions in rodent products.
"The trade data show that the US cannot solely blame other regions of the world when new zoonotic diseases emerge. The majority of imports (99% of bats and 96% of rodents and primates) were dead, meaning that US demand shifts the disease risk linked to the wildlife trade and the capture, transport, and slaughter of wildlife to China and other source countries. China, where the virus causing Covid-19 likely emerged, is the number one source of bats and primates imported to the US and the fifth-largest source of rodents,” the findings state.
The experts also argue that scientific research has documented that animals become more stressed the longer they are in the supply chain, such as from their point of capture to processing. This stress increases the risk animals will both shed and pick up diseases and trade makes it more likely wildlife will come into contact with other captured species and people, increasing the chance for diseases to evolve that may infect people, they explain. Based on their findings, the team suggests that it is crucial to evaluate risk along the entire supply chain from “collection, preservation, packing and shipment methods” and how species are transported and to where.
The experts recommend that the US should immediately implement a ban or moratorium on the wildlife trade, which will reduce demand and dry up wildlife supply chains. However, to be effective, the moratorium must be accompanied by significant funds for international conservation and to transition livelihoods away from the wildlife trade in wildlife-producing countries, they suggest. “Efforts must be made to strengthen U.S. conservation efforts to fight the wildlife trade globally and to restore US leadership in international wildlife and habitat conservation efforts. Only through a concerted global effort can we reduce risk,” the authors conclude.