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Billions of live animals move through the legal and illegal wildlife trade, a massive industry a former CDC epidemiologist described as “pandemic roulette.”
Traded animals move to places they never would have been otherwise, encountering species—and pathogens—they never would have been exposed to in their own habitats. As a result, diseases can spread, mutate and ultimately sicken humans.
“Zoonotic” diseases jumping from animals to humans have driven many of the world’s most consequential outbreaks, including HIV/AIDS, influenza, West Nile virus and, many scientists believe, COVID-19.
Katie and Kiley dug into this story after reporting on mass deaths at Florida’s Sloth World, an investigation that led to calls for reform from lawmakers, a state-led criminal investigation and a short-term ban on sloth imports.
