Peru’s illegal pet monkey trade is also an infection superhighway
By Carla Ruas At Belén Market in the northeastern Peruvian city of Iquitos, monkeys illegally captured from the Amazon Rainforest are sold as pets right next to fruits and vegetables. The primates are kept in tight cages and in close contact with other animals, people and trash — ideal conditions for picking up and spreading diseases. But markets like Belén are only the beginning, according to a recent paper published in PLOS ONE. The monkeys continue to transmit viruses, parasites and bacteria all along the trafficking route, even as they reach their final destinations in households, or rescu...