Challenges in understanding and communicating the risk of zoonotic disease spillover from wild animal meat

Discussions around managing hunting and the consumption of wild animal meat increasingly emphasizes public health concerns and the risk of zoonotic spillover. In this article, we explore factors that may lead to under- or overestimating health risks from wild meat and break down key terminology for a multidisciplinary audience. We outline key principles of disease ecology and epidemiology that are often overlooked when quantifying spillover risk, and reflect on the importance of contextualizing health risks relative to food-health systems more broadly. We discuss how misrepresenting risks, intentionally or unintentionally, to justify conservation practices can have unintended negative conservation and public health consequences - despite the importance of conservation in protecting human health more broadly. We stress the importance of considering individual and local health outcomes (food security, neglected tropical diseases, etc.), not only those impacting global health (i.e. pandemic prevention). Finally, we advocate for evidence-informed, context-appropriate strategies for wild meat management.