THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP IN EMERGING DISEASE RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE WILDLIFE TRADE

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• The wildlife trade is a significant risk factor for emerging infectious diseases, demanding urgent management strategies.
• Existing research focuses on pathogen detection but lacks evidence on effective, real-world risk reduction interventions.
• The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the critical need for better strategies to mitigate disease emergence from wildlife trade.

Approach:

• Conducted a comprehensive environmental scan, including a scoping review (PRISMA-ScR protocol), narrative literature reviews, and interviews with 26 wildlife health experts.
• Triangulated data from multiple sources to assess the effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of risk reduction interventions.
• Identified a significant gap in program implementation and evaluation studies within the existing literature.

Key Points:

• Insufficient peer-reviewed evidence exists to identify effective and sustainable risk management actions for the wildlife trade.
• Research on the impact of social, epidemiological, and ecological contexts on intervention success is lacking.
• A complex systems perspective is underutilized in studies addressing disease emergence from wildlife trade.

Conclusions:

• Decision-makers lack sufficient evidence to select appropriate, effective, and sustainable interventions for managing wildlife trade risks.
• There is a critical need for adaptive risk management strategies.
• Innovations in program implementation and evaluation are essential for evidence-based risk management in the wildlife trade sector.