This pangolin was confiscated from a smuggling ring that sold endangered animals to restaurants in China. Animals caught up in the wildlife trade pose a great risk of spillover diseases. Jimin Lai/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Jimin Lai/AFP/via Getty Images In 2003, a shipment of exotic African rodents to a pet store in Illinois sparked the United States’ first mpox outbreak. Gambian giant rats and other rodents infected prairie dogs, which in turn infected nearly 100 people who handled the animals. Ebola outbreaks are often triggered after contact with bats, which are sometimes eaten or used for traditional medicine. And more famously, a string of scientific papers suggest the COVID-19 pandemic originated at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where scores of live wild animals — racoon dogs, civets, Himalayan marmots — were housed in cramped quarters.  Anecdotes like these are examples of how the wildlife trade — anything from purchasing wild animals for food to trapping them for pets — can open an avenue for pathogens to jump from animals to humans. A …