Alarming Record: Zoonosis Risks from the Wild Animal Trade in Germany and Europe

Five years after the first Corona lockdown, the species conservation organisation Pro Wildlife takes a sobering look at the trade in live wild animals in Germany and Europe.

Although the Corona pandemic made the risks of zoonoses and the trade in live wild animals abundantly clear, the EU continues to import millions of wild animals from around the world as exotic pets — many of them with unknown backgrounds, emphasises Dr. Sandra Altherr, biologist at Pro Wildlife. The risk that zoonoses could be introduced through this channel is being completely ignored. Urgent restrictions on international wildlife trade are necessary to prevent these risks.

The EU remains one of the largest markets for wild animals

Pro Wildlife points to the central role of the EU and Germany in particular as a hub and sales market for the trade in exotic pets: “Whether at animal fairs, via the internet or in pet shops: countless wild animals from around the world are offered for sale here every year as exotic pets — not only endangered species, but also animals that are known to be potential carriers of dangerous zoonoses,” reports Altherr. Imports for the vast majority of species are not even systematically recorded: numbers, origin and background frequently remain unknown. Research by Pro Wildlife shows, however, that living fruit bats from Asia, for example, are still being imported — despite the many different coronaviruses for which they are considered hosts.

Wildlife Trade: A Problem for Species Conservation, Animal Welfare, and Public Health

The trade in exotic pets is primarily criticized for the animal welfare and species conservation problems it causes. The associated health risks, however, are barely recognized: three-quarters of all new infectious diseases are zoonoses, and more than 70% of zoonoses originate from wildlife. A 2021 study warns that hundreds of thousands of as yet unexplored viruses from birds and mammals alone could be infectious to humans. “The vast numbers of animals, the long distribution chains, the close confinement of the most diverse wildlife species at intermediaries, the enormous stress, and the often uncertain origin of the animals — all of these are factors in both legal and illegal trade in live wild animals that increase the risk of virus transmission to humans («spillover») and thus the introduction of zoonoses,” said Altherr.

Examples of zoonoses transmitted by exotic pets:

• Between 2011 and 2014, at least three private keepers and one zoo animal keeper died in Germany from encephalitis — they had been infected with a bornavirus through contact with exotic squirrels. The virus was detected in, among others, variegated squirrels and Prevost's squirrels — variegated squirrels originate from Central America, Prevost's squirrels from Southeast Asia.
• As early as 2014, the Robert Koch Institute warned that the incidence of reptile-associated salmonellosis in young children had increased significantly in recent years. The Pasteur Institute reported 871 reptile-related salmonellosis cases in 2014, including four deaths. Salmonella pathogens have been detected in 12 to 85% of captive turtles, 16 to 92% of captive snakes, and 36 to 84% of captive lizards, without the animals necessarily being ill themselves.

Inadequate Political Consequences

Pro Wildlife criticizes the measures taken by the EU so far as piecemeal and purely reactive: import bans on individual animals are only imposed once disease outbreaks have already occurred. Thus, an outbreak of Mpox (“monkeypox”) in the United States involving infected prairie dogs and African rodents in 2003 led to an EU import ban on these animals. Other animals such as monkeys or coatis are also potential Mpox vectors, yet they may still be imported into the EU as pets.

The species conservation organization therefore calls for an import ban on wild-caught animals and a strict limitation of the wildlife trade, e.g. through a positive list for pets that specifies which species are suitable for private ownership at all. “These measures would be long overdue not only for reasons of animal, nature, and species protection, but also help as a preventive measure against zoonoses,” says Altherr. “The future federal government must finally take action here.”

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