Summarizing US Wildlife Trade with an Eye Toward Assessing the Risk of Infectious Disease Introduction

TLDR

Most regulatory oversight of wildlife trade is aimed at conservation, rather than prevention of disease introduction. The study aims to characterize the USA's role in global wildlife trade and identify high‑volume trade to prioritize health risk assessment questions. We analyzed 14 years of USFWS LEMIS data covering 11 billion specimens and 977 million kg of wildlife. The analysis revealed that most shipments were mammals (27%) and that shells (57%) and tropical fish (25%) dominated imports, with one‑third containing live animals, 77.7 % of imports wild‑caught, Indonesia and Mexico leading legal and illegal exporters respectively, China the top exporter overall, and a doubling of annual declared shipments over the period, underscoring the need to scale border inspections, risk management, and disease surveillance.

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to characterize the role of the USA in the global exchange of wildlife and describe high volume trade with an eye toward prioritizing health risk assessment questions for further analysis. Here we summarize nearly 14 years (2000–2013) of the most comprehensive data available (USFWS LEMIS system), involving 11 billion individual specimens and an additional 977 million kilograms of wildlife. The majority of shipments contained mammals (27%), while the majority of specimens imported were shells (57%) and tropical fish (25%). Most imports were facilitated by the aquatic and pet industry, resulting in one-third of all shipments containing live animals. The importer reported origin of wildlife was 77.7% wild-caught and 17.7% captive-reared. Indonesia was the leading exporter of legal shipments, while Mexico was the leading source reported for illegal shipments. At the specimen level, China was the leading exporter of legal and illegal wildlife imports. The number of annual declared shipments doubled during the period examined, illustrating continually increasing demand, which reinforces the need to scale up capacity for border inspections, risk management protocols and disease surveillance. Most regulatory oversight of wildlife trade is aimed at conservation, rather than prevention of disease introduction.