Wildlife Trade and COVID-19: Animal Welfare and Pandemic Prevention

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the links between wildlife trade, animal welfare, and zoonotic disease spillover. Reform of the global wildlife trade is essential for both animal welfare and human health security.

Key Facts

An estimated 75% of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals, often linked to wildlife trade
Wet markets combine multiple species in stressful, crowded conditions ideal for pathogen spillover
The legal international wildlife trade is valued at over 00 billion annually
SARS, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19 are all linked to human-animal interfaces in wildlife trade
Stress from capture, transport, and confinement increases pathogen shedding and immune suppression
Wildlife farming as an alternative to wild capture creates concentrated zoonotic disease risks
CITES regulates some trade but millions of animals and tonnes of animal products fall through gaps

Welfare Considerations

Wildlife trade causes enormous animal suffering at every stage: capture from the wild involves injury, stress, and high mortality; transport conditions are often lethal; markets expose animals to alien species, diseases, and extreme confinement. Beyond individual animal welfare, the cumulative stress and crowding in wildlife trade systems create conditions that accelerate zoonotic disease emergence. Reforming wildlife trade is therefore both an animal welfare and a global health priority, with benefits that extend far beyond the animals directly affected.

What You Can Do

Support campaigns to ban or strictly regulate live wildlife markets with poor biosecurity
Advocate for stronger CITES enforcement and closure of loopholes in wildlife trade regulation
Never purchase wildlife products from unverified or illegal sources
Support organisations working on wildlife trade reform like TRAFFIC and World Animal Protection
Push governments to fund zoonotic disease surveillance at wildlife-human interfaces