When pathologists cut open dead sloths from a planned Florida tourist attraction that never opened due to mass sloth deaths, they found a plethora of pathogens.

Parasites, bacteria and viruses were all lurking in animals weakened by grueling international transport and stressful conditions at the warehouse that received them, according to necropsy records and a state inspection report obtained by Inside Climate News through an open records request. The sloths had distended stomachs, diarrhea matted into fur and lungs congested with pneumonia.

The Orlando business where they died, called Sloth World, closed before ever opening to the public amid a backlash after an April investigation by Inside Climate News. But wildlife scientists, epidemiologists and veterinary pathologists say the details of the mass deaths spotlight broader public-health concerns with the multi-billion-dollar legal wildlife trade in an era where three-quarters of new infectious diseases originate in animals.

The industry creates a pipeline for viruses, parasites and fungi to mutate, spread and threaten humans and animals alike—helped along by major gaps in government protections.

“Wildlife trading is inherently a system that can amplify pathogen risk,” said Dr. Neil Vora, a physician and epidemiologist who spent nearly a decade working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including on the frontlines of Ebola outbreaks.

As a person, Vora said he’s heartbroken about the mass sloth deaths and the suffering of the animals Sloth World imported from the forests of Peru and Guyana—more than 50 have died. As an epidemiologist, he is deeply concerned by the movement of wild animals into commercial settings. Vora pointed to the 2002 SARS outbreak in China, sparked by live animal markets, and the 2003 Mpox outbreak in Wisconsin, linked to the exotic pet trade, as clear historical warnings of what happens when species are artificially commingled under intense stress.

“It is like conducting a dangerous genetic experiment,” Vora said of the trade. “It’s just a ticking time bomb that has huge risk—it’s like pandemic roulette.”

Read the full article about the wildlife trade and pandemic risk by Katie Surma and Kiley Price at Inside Climate News.