Wildlife Trade and COVID-19: Towards a Criminology of Anthropogenic Pathogen Spillover

Abstract

The general remit of this paper is the role of wildlife trade in pathogen spillover. Its underlying assumption is that, so far from being the exclusive domain of the life sciences, the study of pathogen spillover will be greatly enhanced by multi-perspectival approaches, including One Health and those employed here, namely, non-speciesist green criminology and critical animal studies. The paper moves from discussions of zoonosis, anthroponosis and wildlife trade to the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The paper recommends the abolition of all wildlife trade and the reclamation of wildlife habitat and broaches discussion of the extension of legal personhood to wild animals.

What Do Adolescents Know About One-Health and Zoonotic Risks? A School-Based Survey in Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Mauritius, and Japan

“…The repeated and frequent outbreak of pandemics can also be attributed to human activities. In particular, the creation of enormous intensive domestic animal farms, the indiscriminate FIGURE 1 | Although major hotspots of mammal hosts occur in the New and Old World tropics (South America and Eastern Africa, particularly) more zoonoses are concentrated in northern latitudes, Eastern Africa, and Southeast Asia (13). According to these findings, it is very important to emphasize that zoonoses are not "exotic diseases" for North American and European citizens (16).…”

“…In fact, zoonotic agents such as Toxocara spp., Chlamydia psittaci, Salmonella spp., Giardia spp., and other viral and bacterial zoonotic diseases are routinely diagnosed among pets from illegal animal trade (16) sold to unwitting parents of children and adolescents (Images credits Paolo Zucca). use of antibiotics on intensive breeding farms, the destruction of forests, the consumption of the meat of wild animals (bush meat) and the illegal animal trade are all factors contributing to the insurgence and the transmission of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans (7,(13)(14)(15). Many people think that zoonoses are a marginal health problem in economically advanced countries since their spread is minimal or non-existent.…”

An analysis of threats, strategies, and opportunities for African rhinoceros conservation

“…This includes what was then known as the largest single black rhinoceros population in the world, which occurred in the Mid-Zambezi Valley (De Alessi, 2000). Amidst the gloom of crumbling world economies, global health systems, and the new COVID-19 pandemic (Saeed et al, 2020), one positive effect of the pandemic is that it has drawn the attention of the world to the global problem of illegal harvesting and illegal wildlife trade (Beirne, 2020;Corlett et al, 2020;Roth, 2020). However, by the year 1994, the black rhinoceros population in Zimbabwe had dropped to less than 300, mainly due to increased poaching pressure (De Alessi, 2000) (Figure 1).…”

“…The supply chain of wildlife and wildlife products from source areas, and transportation through local, national, and international networks to distant markets allow for natural spillover and spread. Due to high demand for wildlife products, reducing illegal wildlife trade remains an elusive undertaking (Baker et al, 2018;Beirne, 2020;Borzée et al, 2020). Public education campaigns should not only tell people about how the wildlife trade (both legal and illegal) harms endangered species, but also its public health implications giving example to COVID-19 pandemic (Beirne, 2020;Bending, 2018;Biggs et al, 2017;Challender et al, 2015).…”

“…Besides threatening millions of human lives, devastating social and economic conditions globally, the COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to the protection of Africa's iconic wildlife species, particularly fragile populations (Ahmand et al, 2020;Roth, 2020) such as black and white rhinoceros. COVID-19 pandemic has affected law enforcement in most protected areas due to reduced capacity by park staff (Beirne, 2020;Corlett et al, 2020).…”