Wildlife farming is common in Vietnam, where people breed and trade wild animals for pets, food and traditional medicine. By 2021, the country had around 6,744 wildlife farms housing 1.8 million animals across 371 species. Although these farms support many families, they also bring people into close contact with wild animals. This creates opportunities for zoonotic diseases to spill over into humans.A recent outbreak highlights the potential danger. The Andes hantavirus, which spreads between people, infected 13 passengers on the cruise ship MV Hondius and killed three. Investigators believe it happened by inhaling contaminated dust while ashore in South America, where the virus is endemic, and later spread person-to-person on the ship.
Our 2025 study found hantavirus exposure in people farming bats, bamboo rats, civets and wild boars in Vietnam. The findings should serve as an early warning for other Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, where wildlife farming and markets are also common.
We tested 210 wildlife farmers in Lao Cai and Dong Nai provinces in Vietnam. Nearly 9 percent had hantavirus immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, showing they had been exposed before. Another 1.9 percent had active infections when we collected samples between August 2023 and March 2024. However, no hantavirus outbreaks were reported during the study period.
