Cultural practices, wildlife trade, and climate shifts drive zoonotic spillover risks in AfricaClimate Change and Wildlife Trade Increase Zoonotic Disease Risks

Frontiers in Medicine Published September 8, 2026 Study authors: Benjamin Obukowho Emikpe, Jude Dzevela Kong, Dickson Shey Nsagha, Sodiya Adesina, Gelan Ayana, David… DOI ↗ Editorial oversight: Dr. Sofia Müller, MD · Lifespan & Whole-Person Care

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Key Takeaway

Note that bushmeat trade, climate-driven migration, and poor surveillance monitoring increase zoonotic spillover risks.

This narrative review explores the drivers of zoonotic spillover in Africa, specifically focusing on the roles of cultural practices, wildlife trade, and environmental changes. The authors synthesize evidence indicating that bushmeat consumption and wildlife trade create direct, sustained contact pathways between humans and wildlife. Notably, zootherapeutic handling chains are identified as the most poorly monitored pathways.

Climate change is identified as a significant driver, as habitat loss and range shifts move reservoir hosts into human-adjacent environments. Additionally, climate-induced migration moves these populations into areas without established exposure norms. The review highlights systemic gaps in One Health implementation, including underfunded surveillance and enforcement measures that push wildlife trade into clandestine channels. A specific surveillance gap noted is the absence of women in urban bushmeat retail from formal serological programs.

The authors acknowledge that these findings are an interpretive synthesis of the reviewed evidence and are not directly tested results. The review suggests that practical improvements require redesigning surveillance to include sentinel systems in Sahelian and forest-margin areas. Furthermore, it advocates for reforming One Health governance to integrate community knowledge, climate data, and migration patterns to better manage zoonotic risks.

How this fits prior evidence

This narrative review addresses gaps in current One Health implementation by identifying specific surveillance failures, such as the exclusion of women in urban bushmeat retail from serological programs. It extends the importance of cross-sector collaboration mentioned in prior coverage by highlighting the need to integrate community knowledge, climate data, and migration patterns into One Health governance to improve pathogen detection and outbreak prediction.

A review of evidence in Africa highlights how human activities and environmental changes increase the risk of zoonotic diseases. These are diseases that spread from animals to people. Factors like bushmeat consumption and the wildlife trade create direct contact between humans and wildlife. The review notes that handling chains for traditional medicines are especially poorly monitored.

Climate change is also a major factor. As habitats change, wild animals move into areas where people live. This movement can bring diseases into new neighborhoods where people have no experience with those specific risks. Additionally, the review found that current monitoring systems have gaps, such as missing data from women in urban bushmeat markets.

Because this is an interpretive review of existing evidence rather than a new clinical trial, the findings are not direct test results. However, the information suggests that better surveillance and stronger community knowledge are needed to manage these risks. People should consult local health experts to understand specific regional risks.

What this means for you:

Climate change and wildlife trade increase the risk of diseases jumping from animals to humans.

Common questions

What factors increase the risk of diseases jumping to humans?

Several factors increase the risk of zoonotic spillover. These include bushmeat consumption, the wildlife trade, and traditional medicine handling chains. These activities create direct and sustained contact between humans and wildlife. Additionally, climate-induced range shifts and habitat loss move wild animals into areas where humans live.

How does climate change affect disease spread?

Climate change causes habitat loss and shifts in where animals live. This moves reservoir populations into areas near humans. Because these animals are moving into new areas, they may encounter human populations that have no established norms for dealing with those specific risks.

What gaps exist in current disease monitoring?

There are several gaps in current systems. These include underfunded wildlife surveillance and a lack of community knowledge. Specifically, women in urban bushmeat retail are currently missing from formal serological surveillance programs. Enforcement issues can also push wildlife trade into less monitored, clandestine channels.

Study Details

Study typeSystematic review

EvidenceLevel 1

PublishedSep 2026

View Original Abstract ↓

The drivers causing spillovers of zoonotic diseases in Africa are multifaceted and include cultural and traditional wildlife practices, illegal trade channels, environmental factors driven by climate change, and human migration. These drivers have been assessed separately in various reviews, and no synthesis has integrated all four within a unified multistage zoonotic spillover framework in Southern Africa, West, and Central Africa. This narrative review explores how cultural practices, the trading of wildlife, climatic changes, and forced human migration contribute to the zoonotic spillover risks. The literature search was conducted with PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases between the years 1990 and 2026 using a structured search strategy. Bushmeat consumption, zootherapeutic practices, and wildlife trade create direct and sustained wildlife-human contact pathways, with zootherapeutic handling chains being the most poorly monitored exposure pathway. Climate-induced range shifts and habitat loss are increasing reservoir host distribution into human-adjacent environments, and climate-induced migration is moving reservoir populations to new areas without known exposure norms. Collectively, this evidence suggests that these drivers do not work in isolation at their intersections, creating compounding risks that cannot be solved by a single-domain intervention. We present this as an interpretive synthesis of the evidence reviewed, not a directly tested findings. Three documented areas highlight the need for strengthening the current implementation of One Health: enforcement measures that push trade into clandestine channels, underfunded wildlife surveillance, and the lack of community knowledge systems in the approach to designing surveillance. Women in urban bushmeat retail, a structurally high-exposure population, remain absent from formal serological surveillance programs. On the basis of these documented gaps, the review recommends redesigning surveillance for the prevention of zoonotic spillover, including sentinel systems in Sahelian and forest-margin areas linked to climate. Structural One Health governance reform will also be needed to implement these priorities, namely, incorporating community knowledge systems, climate, and migration data into national surveillance systems.

Cultural practices, wildlife trade, and climate shifts drive zoonotic spillover risks in AfricaClimate Change and Wildlife Trade Increase Zoonotic Disease Risks

How this fits prior evidence

Common questions

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Cultural practices, wildlife trade, and climate shifts drive zoonotic spillover risks in AfricaClimate Change and Wildlife Trade Increase Zoonotic Disease Risks

How this fits prior evidence

Common questions

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