Scapegoating Wild Birds Won’t Solve Avian Flu: We Need Radical Farming Reform

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  2. birds
Health officials in field with migratory birds.

South Korean health officials inspect a rice field frequented by migrating birds in Seosan, 130 kilometers (78 miles) southwest of Seoul, on November 24, 2006. 

(Photo: Jeon Young-Han/AFP via Getty Images)

Scapegoating Wild Birds Won’t Solve Avian Flu: We Need Radical Farming Reform

As we reflect on the wonder of migratory birds, and the spotlight focuses on how our cities and communities can be made more bird-friendly, we must also consider how our food system is posing a threat to their very existence.

Peter Stevenson

May 10, 2025Common Dreams

For migratory and other wild birds, bird flu is a disaster. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, states that 169 million U.S. poultry have been affected by highly pathogenic bird flu since January 2022. Yet worldwide, tens of millions of wild birds have died of bird flu—which has also spread to mammals, including over 1,000 US. dairy herds.

Saturday 10 May is World Migratory Bird Day, a global event for raising awareness of migratory birds and issues related to their conservation. The poultry industry and governments like to blame wild birds for bird flu. However, the Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds—which includes the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) stresses that wild birds are in fact the victims of highly pathogenic bird flu; they do not cause it. As a recent study states, “This panzootic did not emerge from nowhere, but rather is the result of 20 years of viral evolution in the ever-expanding global poultry population.”

Until recently, the bird flu viruses that circulate naturally in wild birds were usually of low pathogenicity; they generally caused little harm to the birds. It is when it gets into industrial poultry sheds—often on contaminated clothing, feed, or equipment—that low pathogenic avian influenza can evolve into dangerous highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Governments worldwide appear to have no strategy for how to end these regular bird flu outbreaks other than to hope they will eventually die down.

Industrial poultry production, in which thousands of genetically similar, stressed birds are packed into a shed, gives a virus a constant supply of new hosts; it can move very quickly among the birds, perhaps mutating as it does so. In this situation, highly virulent strains can rapidly emerge. The European Food Safety Authority warns that it is important to guard against certain low pathogenic avian influenza subtypes entering poultry farms “as these subtypes are able to mutate into their highly pathogenic forms once circulating in poultry.”

Once highly pathogenic avian influenza strains have developed in poultry farms, they can then be carried back outside—for example, through the large ventilation fans used in intensive poultry operations—and spread to wild birds. The Scientific Task Force states that since the mid-2000s spillover of highly pathogenic bird flu from poultry to wild birds has occurred “on multiple occasions.”

So, low pathogenic bird flu is spread from wild birds to intensive poultry where it can mutate into highly pathogenic bird flu, which then spills over to wild birds and can even return back to poultry in a growing and continuing vicious circle.

Following its evolution in farmed poultry, the highly pathogenic virus has adapted to wild birds, meaning that it is circulating independently in wild populations, with some outbreaks occurring in remote areas that are distant from any poultry farms.

Is There a Health Risk for Humans?

While the health risk to humans from bird flu may be low, it cannot be ignored. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has spread to mammals including otters, foxes, seals, dolphins, sea lions, dogs, and bears. Worryingly, it has been found in a Spanish mink farm where it then was able to spread from one infected mink to another.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that cow-to-cow transmission is a factor in the spread of bird flu in dairy herds. The ability for bird flu to move directly from one mammal to another is troubling as a pandemic could ensue if it could move directly from one human to another.

Scientists at Scripps Research reveal that a single mutation in the H5N1 virus that has recently infected U.S. dairy cows could enhance the virus’ ability to attach to human cells, potentially increasing the risk of passing from person to person.

A 2023 joint statement from the World Health Organization, the FAO, and WOAH stated that, while avian influenza viruses normally spread among birds, “the increasing number of H5N1 avian influenza detections among mammals—which are biologically closer to humans than birds are—raises concern that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily.”

Some mammals may also act as mixing vessels, leading to the emergence of new viruses that could be more harmful.

Pigs as Mixing Vessels

Pigs can be infected by avian and human influenza viruses as well as swine influenza viruses. Pigs can act as mixing vessels in which these viruses can reassort (i.e. swap genes) and new viruses that are a mix of pig, bird, and human viruses can emerge. The U.S. CDC explains that if the resulting new virus infects humans and can spread easily from person to person, a flu pandemic can occur.

Need for a Coherent Strategy to End Bird Flu

Governments worldwide appear to have no strategy for how to end these regular bird flu outbreaks other than to hope they will eventually die down. There is no sign of this happening. Without an exit strategy we are likely to face repeated, devastating outbreaks of bird flu for years to come. We need an action plan to restructure the poultry and pig sectors to reduce their capacity for generating highly pathogenic diseases.

We need to:

  • Move to a poultry sector with smaller flocks and lower stocking densities to give the birds more space. Transmission and amplification of bird flu would be much less likely in such conditions.
  • End the practice of clustering a large number of poultry farms close together in a particular area. Between-farm spread is a major contributor to the transmission of highly pathogenic bird flu.
  • End the use of birds genetically selected for very fast growth. Such birds have impaired immune systems making them more susceptible to disease.

In light of pigs’ capacity for acting as mixing vessels for human, avian, and swine influenza viruses, the pig sector too needs to be restructured to make it less vulnerable to the transmission and amplification of influenza viruses. As with poultry, this would involve reducing stocking densities, smaller group sizes, and avoiding concentrating large numbers of farms in a particular area.

As we reflect on the wonder of migratory birds, and the spotlight focuses on how our cities and communities can be made more bird-friendly, we must also consider how our food system is posing a threat to their very existence. Failure to rethink industrial farming leaves us vulnerable, with the continued devastation of wild birds and poultry, and perhaps even a human pandemic.

Scapegoating Wild Birds Won’t Solve Avian Flu: We Need Radical Farming Reform

  1. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/avian-flu-wild-birds
  2. birds
Health officials in field with migratory birds.

South Korean health officials inspect a rice field frequented by migrating birds in Seosan, 130 kilometers (78 miles) southwest of Seoul, on November 24, 2006. 

(Photo: Jeon Young-Han/AFP via Getty Images)

Scapegoating Wild Birds Won’t Solve Avian Flu: We Need Radical Farming Reform

As we reflect on the wonder of migratory birds, and the spotlight focuses on how our cities and communities can be made more bird-friendly, we must also consider how our food system is posing a threat to their very existence.

Peter Stevenson

May 10, 2025Common Dreams

For migratory and other wild birds, bird flu is a disaster. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, states that 169 million U.S. poultry have been affected by highly pathogenic bird flu since January 2022. Yet worldwide, tens of millions of wild birds have died of bird flu—which has also spread to mammals, including over 1,000 US. dairy herds.

Saturday 10 May is World Migratory Bird Day, a global event for raising awareness of migratory birds and issues related to their conservation. The poultry industry and governments like to blame wild birds for bird flu. However, the Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds—which includes the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) stresses that wild birds are in fact the victims of highly pathogenic bird flu; they do not cause it. As a recent study states, “This panzootic did not emerge from nowhere, but rather is the result of 20 years of viral evolution in the ever-expanding global poultry population.”

Until recently, the bird flu viruses that circulate naturally in wild birds were usually of low pathogenicity; they generally caused little harm to the birds. It is when it gets into industrial poultry sheds—often on contaminated clothing, feed, or equipment—that low pathogenic avian influenza can evolve into dangerous highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Governments worldwide appear to have no strategy for how to end these regular bird flu outbreaks other than to hope they will eventually die down.

Industrial poultry production, in which thousands of genetically similar, stressed birds are packed into a shed, gives a virus a constant supply of new hosts; it can move very quickly among the birds, perhaps mutating as it does so. In this situation, highly virulent strains can rapidly emerge. The European Food Safety Authority warns that it is important to guard against certain low pathogenic avian influenza subtypes entering poultry farms “as these subtypes are able to mutate into their highly pathogenic forms once circulating in poultry.”

Once highly pathogenic avian influenza strains have developed in poultry farms, they can then be carried back outside—for example, through the large ventilation fans used in intensive poultry operations—and spread to wild birds. The Scientific Task Force states that since the mid-2000s spillover of highly pathogenic bird flu from poultry to wild birds has occurred “on multiple occasions.”

So, low pathogenic bird flu is spread from wild birds to intensive poultry where it can mutate into highly pathogenic bird flu, which then spills over to wild birds and can even return back to poultry in a growing and continuing vicious circle.

Following its evolution in farmed poultry, the highly pathogenic virus has adapted to wild birds, meaning that it is circulating independently in wild populations, with some outbreaks occurring in remote areas that are distant from any poultry farms.

Is There a Health Risk for Humans?

While the health risk to humans from bird flu may be low, it cannot be ignored. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has spread to mammals including otters, foxes, seals, dolphins, sea lions, dogs, and bears. Worryingly, it has been found in a Spanish mink farm where it then was able to spread from one infected mink to another.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that cow-to-cow transmission is a factor in the spread of bird flu in dairy herds. The ability for bird flu to move directly from one mammal to another is troubling as a pandemic could ensue if it could move directly from one human to another.

Scientists at Scripps Research reveal that a single mutation in the H5N1 virus that has recently infected U.S. dairy cows could enhance the virus’ ability to attach to human cells, potentially increasing the risk of passing from person to person.

A 2023 joint statement from the World Health Organization, the FAO, and WOAH stated that, while avian influenza viruses normally spread among birds, “the increasing number of H5N1 avian influenza detections among mammals—which are biologically closer to humans than birds are—raises concern that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily.”

Some mammals may also act as mixing vessels, leading to the emergence of new viruses that could be more harmful.

Pigs as Mixing Vessels

Pigs can be infected by avian and human influenza viruses as well as swine influenza viruses. Pigs can act as mixing vessels in which these viruses can reassort (i.e. swap genes) and new viruses that are a mix of pig, bird, and human viruses can emerge. The U.S. CDC explains that if the resulting new virus infects humans and can spread easily from person to person, a flu pandemic can occur.

Need for a Coherent Strategy to End Bird Flu

Governments worldwide appear to have no strategy for how to end these regular bird flu outbreaks other than to hope they will eventually die down. There is no sign of this happening. Without an exit strategy we are likely to face repeated, devastating outbreaks of bird flu for years to come. We need an action plan to restructure the poultry and pig sectors to reduce their capacity for generating highly pathogenic diseases.

We need to:

  • Move to a poultry sector with smaller flocks and lower stocking densities to give the birds more space. Transmission and amplification of bird flu would be much less likely in such conditions.
  • End the practice of clustering a large number of poultry farms close together in a particular area. Between-farm spread is a major contributor to the transmission of highly pathogenic bird flu.
  • End the use of birds genetically selected for very fast growth. Such birds have impaired immune systems making them more susceptible to disease.

In light of pigs’ capacity for acting as mixing vessels for human, avian, and swine influenza viruses, the pig sector too needs to be restructured to make it less vulnerable to the transmission and amplification of influenza viruses. As with poultry, this would involve reducing stocking densities, smaller group sizes, and avoiding concentrating large numbers of farms in a particular area.

As we reflect on the wonder of migratory birds, and the spotlight focuses on how our cities and communities can be made more bird-friendly, we must also consider how our food system is posing a threat to their very existence. Failure to rethink industrial farming leaves us vulnerable, with the continued devastation of wild birds and poultry, and perhaps even a human pandemic.

U.S. Department of Interior expands hunting at Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge

Caleb Taylor | 05.09.25

Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge sign
(Facebook/Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge)

Hunters will have expanded opportunities at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge soon.

According to a Department of Interior spokesperson, the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge will add archery as a new hunting method to expand an existing upland game hunt on 7,017 acres.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced 42 new proposed hunting opportunities last week across more than 87,000 acres within the National Wildlife Refuge System and National Fish Hatchery System.  

The proposal would more than triple the number of opportunities and quintuple the number of stations opened or expanded compared to the previous administration, underscoring a strong national commitment to outdoor recreation and conservation, according to the Department of Interior.

“Expanding recreational access to our public lands isn’t just about tradition—it’s about supporting rural economies and the American families who depend on them,” Burgum said. “By opening more areas to hunting and outdoor recreation, we’re helping drive tourism, create jobs, and generate revenue for local communities, all while promoting responsible stewardship of our natural resources.” 

The Service is proposing to open or expand opportunities for hunting and sport fishing at 16 National Wildlife Refuge System stations and one National Fish Hatchery System station. These stations are located in Alabama, California, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Texas and Washington.

The Service will publish the proposal for public comment in the Federal Register and it will be available at http://www.regulations.gov. The Service intends to finalize the proposed changes in time for the upcoming 2025-2026 hunting seasons. 

“Hunting and fishing are traditional recreational activities deeply rooted in America’s heritage. National wildlife refuges, national fish hatcheries and other Service lands offer hunting and fishing access that helps boost local economies and gives Americans an opportunity to unplug,” said Fish and Wildlife Service acting director Paul Souza. “We are pleased to expand access and offer new opportunities that are compatible with our conservation mission and are committed to responsibly managing these areas for the benefit of future generations.” 

2025-2026 Hunt Fish Proposed Update Narratives Final by Caleb Taylor on Scribd

Fort St. John hunter fined $5,000 for killing northern mountain caribou

A hunter based out of Fort St. John, Adam Ward-Pattison, has been penalized for killing the at-risk northern mountain cow caribou species in the Pink Mountain area.

By Steven Berard  Fort NelsonFort St. JohnNewsPeace Region  May 9, 2025  2 minutes of reading

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A hunter based out of Fort St. John has been penalized for killing an at-risk species of caribou. (Pixabay)

The article below includes an image of a dead animal. Reader discretion is advised.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A local man has been fined thousands of dollars and banned from hunting in B.C. for three years for killing an at-risk species.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Environment and Parks, the incident occurred in October 2022 in the Pink Mountain area, when the man killed an animal he misidentified as a white-tailed buck.

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Once he began to harvest the animal, he realized he had actually killed a northern mountain cow caribou, a species on the province’s blue list that tracks animals at risk of endangerment.

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Upon discovering the animal’s actual species, the man self-reported the incident to the Conservation Officer Service (COS). The COS retrieved the animal’s body and donated it to a local First Nation.

Adam Ward-Pattison plead guilty to killing wildlife not with an open season, a violation of the Wildlife Act.

He has been fined $5,015, the majority of which will go to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, and is prohibited from hunting or accompanying hunters anywhere in the province for three years. 

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An unedited image of the deceased caribou is included here:

The northern mountain caribou hunted and killed in the Pink Mountain area. (Ministry of Environment and Parks)

What is zoonotic disease? How bird flu and other illnesses spread from animals to humans

9 May 2025

Want to help protect wildlife?Join IFAW

In January, the US state of Louisiana announced that a patient had died of bird flu (H5N1) after exposure to ‘a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds.’ 

In recent months, the virus has mutated quickly and has spread from wild birds to poultry, dairy cattle, and sheep, leading to culls and potentially serious consequences for agriculture. 

A box turtle that the IFAW team found swimming in the water.

Scientists and public health officials worldwide have been tracking the current variant of bird flu since it was discovered in 2020 when the world was in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, researchers in Argentina found bird flu had spread from migratory birds to poultry and subsequently to sea lions and elephant seals. In October of that year, an elephant seal breeding colony experienced unprecedented mortality. A new variant of bird flu impacting marine mammals was identified as the cause of the deaths of around 17,000 seals, and 96% of the seal pups born that season were dead by November. 

Researchers are particularly concerned with the way a virus that began in birds was easily adapting to mammals and spreading. Not only is this very worrying for wildlife populations but, as the tragic death in Louisiana shows, it’s also worrying for humans.  

The bird flu virus is one of more than 200 illnesses called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses that animals can transmit to humans.  

Although these illnesses occur naturally, our relationship with nature can heighten or lower the risk they pose to humans. The health of animals, people, and ecosystems are closely linked. This demonstrates why zoonotic illnesses are just one reason why preventing wildlife crime and protecting wild animals are essential for safeguarding our own health, food, and economies.  

What are zoonotic diseases? 

Zoonoses disease, also known as zoonoses, are diseases or infections that can be transmitted from non-human animals to humans and vice versa. Zoonotic disease can be caused by a variety of disease-causing pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites and can be transmitted through direct contact with infected animals, contaminated food or water, or through airborne or aerosolized particles.  

More than two thirds of viruses seen in humans have a zoonotic origin. The first time a specific disease is transmitted from an animal to a human is called a ‘spillover event’, and, due to human land-use expansion, illegal wildlife trafficking, and bushmeat consumption—all of which lead to increased contact between people and animals—these spillover events have become more common. 

List of zoonotic diseases 

Zoonotic diseases can be caused by several pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and prions. Some of the most well-known are: 

  • Viral: HIV, COVID-19, the 1918 influenza (Spanish flu), rabies, avian influenza (bird flu), Ebola, Mpox (monkey pox), West Nile virus, Nipah virus, Zika virus, SARS, MERS, yellow fever 
  • Bacterial: Lyme disease, cat scratch disease, anthrax, salmonellosis, zoonotic tuberculosis, Bubonic plague 
  • Parasitic: toxoplasmosis, Giardiasis, scabies 
  • Fungal: ringworm, sporotrichosis (rose handler’s disease) 
  • Prionic: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease), chronic wasting disease (zombie deer disease) 

Many of those names may sound familiar, and it’s no wonder. More than 60% of known infectious diseases in humans could be zoonotic in origin, and an estimated 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. 

Insects like fleas and mosquitos often act as vectors, transferring a pathogen from an animal to a human. Sometimes zoonotic diseases mutate within humans, creating a human-only strain.  

As we saw with the 1918 influenza and COVID-19 pandemics, new zoonotic diseases—or new strains of them—take tremendous resources and time before we find effective treatments and prevention. In the meantime, they can kill or debilitate countless individuals, overwhelm health services, and devastate agriculture and other livelihoods, making zoonotic diseases a serious threat not only to public health but also to economies and food security. 

How does wildlife crime spread zoonotic diseases? 

The ways we exploit wildlife and their ecosystems has led to deadly disease spillover both directly and indirectly, because the diseases we get from domesticated animals often have their origins in wildlife.  

Here are some ways that wildlife crime and our exploitation of nature threaten our own health and well-being.  

Habitat destruction 

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When habitats are destroyed, wildlife moves into new areas which brings them into closer contact with other species, including humans. By examining one example of habitat destruction—forests—we can demonstrate how human impact on habitats can result in a chain reaction that leads to zoonotic disease. 

It may surprise you, but the illegal timber trade is one of the most profitable forms of transnational organised crime. Illegal logging and forest crime are estimated to be worth up to US$152 billion a year and account for 15-30% of all timber traded globally. However, timber isn’t the only reason forests are destroyed. Production of palm oil, soy, cattle, rubber, and other commodities also leads to deforestation

Forests are intricate ecosystems, so disrupting one part sets off a cascade of consequences. In areas of Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, mosquitoes carry a zoonotic malaria called Plasmodium knowlesi that originates in macaques, a type of monkey. These areas are also hotspots of deforestation. When the forest canopy is destroyed, more rainfall reaches the forest floor, creating sunny pools in which mosquitoes thrive. Without enough trees, macaques spend more time on the forest floor, increasing their exposure to mosquitoes. 

When more macaques become infected with malaria, more mosquitoes become infected, too. And these mosquitoes will also bite humans who live nearby, thus spreading the disease to human communities. 

Similarly, the deadly Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 has been linked to deforestation in the West and Central African rainforest. Studies have demonstrated that fruit bats that host the Ebola virus have been forced into closer proximity to urban areas due to loss of rainforest habitat, resulting in increased bat-to-human virus transmission. 

Finally, not only does deforestation destroy wildlife’s homes and push them into human settlements, but it also makes them more vulnerable to illness. A study in the Atlantic Forest of Paraguay showed that small rodents and marsupials in smaller forest fragments had elevated levels of stress hormones than those living in larger forest fragments. This decreases their ability to mount an adequate immune response to potentially zoonotic organisms, thereby making infection with zoonotic organisms more likely and increasing the possibility of spillover and outbreak. 

Wildlife trafficking 

It’s impossible to know how much wildlife is traded globally, because it can be as small-scale as two individuals bartering to large-scale international shipments of live animals or animal products (scales, horns, skins, meat, tusks, feathers, or other items). Much of this trade happens informally or illegally. However, some researchers estimate that around 40,000 live primates, 4 million live birds, 640,000 live reptiles, and 350 million live tropical fish are traded worldwide annually. This creates at least 1 billion direct and indirect contacts among wildlife, humans, and domestic animals. The people involved in this chain include hunters, poachers, transporters, middle marketers, customs and other law enforcement officials, sellers, and customers. 

Each of these contacts is an opportunity for pathogens to spread. That’s why IFAW is working to train law enforcement in the proper handling of live animals seized from trade

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) sets international trade standards for animal health and disease control, based on information they collect on animal diseases. The organisation’s members then make trade policy recommendations to their governments and other authorities with the goal of limiting deadly diseases like rabies. Nevertheless, because a lot of wildlife trade is done illegally and does not adhere to these recommendations, it’s carried out in unsanitary, unhygienic ways and increases the risk of the spread of zoonotic diseases. 

For example, poachers do not only come into close contact with the animals they capture, but they often kill other animals, such as mother orangutans or mother bears, in the process. This makes it more likely poachers will touch infected blood and other bodily fluids and increases the risk of spillover events.  

In addition, wildlife traffickers usually keep animals in crowded, unsanitary conditions that increase the animals’ stress levels, weaken their immune systems, and transmit diseases between them. While waiting to be sold, captured animals are often kept with other species that they wouldn’t otherwise encounter in the wild, making it easier for pathogens to infect new species, adapt, and spread. 

Exotic pets 

Exotic pets are growing in popularity since the rise of social media, with influencers gaining views by showing off their unique animal companions. However, possession of exotic pets is often the result of a cruel, deadly trade that spreads disease—a connection that has been well known since long before TikTok. It is important to understand that wild animals should live where they were born to be—the wild—and not kept as pets. The exotic pet trade is dangerous for both people and animals. 

An example of how exotic pets can promote the transmission of zoonotic illnesses was seen in 2003. A shipment of around 800 small mammals, including prairie dogs, imported the mpox virus to the US. Before then, this dangerous illness had never been seen in the Western Hemisphere, but because of the exotic pet trade, it spread across continents.  

Two prairie dogs interacting.

Big cats in captivity are at risk for abuse and often live in poor, cramped conditions. Due to their magnified health problems and the unhygienic conditions in which they are kept, captive big cats are prone to disease. In December 2024, 20 big cats kept at an unaccredited pseudo-sanctuary in Washington died after contracting bird flu. 

IFAW is dedicated to ending the trade of big cats through legislation and working with legitimate sanctuaries to get these cats the care they so desperately need. Over the past 15 years, we’ve helped rescue more than 200 big cats from poor captive conditions. 

Another example is bonobos, which are susceptible to viruses like Ebola. Bonobos are hunted as a luxury food product and are also trafficked for the exotic pet trade, risking the spread of disease to other animals and humans. IFAW supports the rescue and rehabilitation of bonobos through our partner Friends of Bonobos, who operate the only bonobo sanctuary and release site in the world.  

Bushmeat trade 

Bushmeat is any meat that comes from wild mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds that live in the jungle, savannah, or wetlands. It can commonly be from monkeys, pangolins, snakes, porcupines, antelopes, elephants, giraffes, and many others. While bushmeat can be a hugely important source of protein for some Indigenous communities who live close to nature, bushmeat does pose potential dangers and other issues. 

Firstly, the hunting and butchering of bushmeat means people are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids. Bushmeat hunters rarely wear protective gear, so any nick or cut on their bodies could lead to a spillover event. Though research is still ongoing, this is a likely way that HIV-1 spread from chimpanzees

The other problem is that rare and endangered animal meat is the most valuable in the bushmeat trade. Since poaching these animals for trade is illegal, the meat is smuggled across borders without undergoing the same safety checks as other meat. It isimpossible to know how much bushmeat is transported worldwide, but every year an estimated 40 tons of bushmeat is flown into Geneva and Zurich airports alone. Each shipment of illegal and uninspected meat brings with it the risk of zoonotic disease and the possibility of spreading these diseases to new regions and countries. 

Wildlife markets 

Wildlife markets, especially those selling live animals, also increase the risk of spillover events. within these markets, many species are kept closely together, including those that don’t usually interact in nature. These markets also serve as transportation hubs, bringing wildlife far from their natural habitats and spreading diseases to species with no prior immunity to them.  

At wet markets, animals are slaughtered and butchered in unhygienic ways with their blood, body fluids, and tissues potentially spreading pathogens. This kind of market is a likely source of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002–2004 and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

However, wildlife markets like these aren’t the only problem. In the 21st century, the internet has become the biggest global marketplace for wildlife trafficking. One study found nearly 12,000 endangered and threatened wildlife specimens—everything from ivory to live monkeys, reptiles, and birds—offered for sale in a six-week period in only four countries: France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom. 

The illegal trade of animals and their parts on the internet goes hand-in-hand with illegal shipping and transport. These criminal activities expand the range of zoonotic diseases by carrying them across national borders. 

How can we prevent or limit the spread of zoonotic diseases? 

Healthy, biodiverse ecosystems are our best protection against zoonotic diseases. Stopping wildlife crime is crucial for preventing spillover events and limiting their spread. Preventing poachingprotecting the authorities who come into contact trafficked wildlife, and advocating for stronger anti-trafficking laws are all crucial ways that IFAW fights wildlife crime. 

Every individual can make a difference. Here are some of the very practical ways we can work together to prevent wildlife crime from threatening public health. 

1. Refuse to buy—or engage with—exotic pets. 

Not only are exotic pets likely to suffer in horrendous conditions, but they can spread diseases to domesticated animals and humans.  

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When you’re online, be careful about how you engage with content that showcases exotic pets. Viewing, liking, or sharing videos can encourage more people to buy animals that should live in the wild. 

Sign the Not a Pet pledge to protect wildlife from the illegal pet trade. You’ll also receive tips and additional actions you can take to help wildlife. 

2. Advocate for stronger anti-trafficking laws and enforcement. 

We need strong national and international policies that protect wildlife from crimes like habitat destruction, poaching, and trafficking. That includes policies that prevent online sales of wildlife and their products, such as the EU Digital Services Act. The key international agreement protecting wildlife from trade around the world is CITES, which safeguards species including tigersred pandas, and African savannah elephants

Individuals can contact their elected representatives and urge them to protect wildlife and communities from the spread of zoonotic disease. 

3. Report wildlife illegally listed for sale online. 

Disrupting wildlife cybercrime requires help from everyone including the public, tech companies, and governments.  

Every internet user can report suspected illegal wildlife products being sold online. Thanks in part to reports from the public, members of the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online blocked or removed more than 24.1 million prohibited wildlife listings and suspected illicit sellers from 2018 to 2024. 

It should be a priority of government agencies tasked with protecting human health and safety to tackle wildlife trafficking—it’s the fourth-largest form of organised crime in the world and has significant consequences not only for ecosystems, but also for people, and industry. That’s why support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will be crucial in preventing the trafficking of songbirds from South America and the Caribbean. 

It’s in all our best interests that we learn to coexist with wildlife and prevent the continued exploitation of these animals—for their good and for ours. 

Donate now to protect wildlife around the world