Wildlife trade drives animal-to-human pathogen transmission over 40 years

The closer and longer the contact between species, the higher the chances of transmission of pathogens. This rule of thumb applies to human-to-human contacts as well as contacts with other species. Gippet et al. examined trade data for wildlife species from the past 40 years and showed that the longer a species had been legally traded, the greater the likelihood that humans and the trade species will share some sort of pathogen (virus, bacterium, fungus, or parasite). The authors estimate that traded wildlife species share one additional pathogen with humans for every decade in the global wildlife market.