Carrying out wild animal microbial research for the response of new infectious diseases in the future

China is one of the countries with the richest species of wild animals in the world. The widely distributed wild animals of numerous species are the natural hosts or susceptible hosts of many infectious diseases. It is estimated that there are more than one million unknown types of viruses in China. In Qinghai-Tibet Plateau alone 10 000–30 000 unknown bacteria might exist in wild animals. There are no less than 600 000 species of animal-derived parasites, and about 2 million species of fungi worldwide. With the rapid development of China’s economy and globalization, contacts between humans and wild animals have become more frequent, increasing the probability of wild animal-derived pathogens infecting humans. The incidence of animal borne infectious diseases will become a “new normal” in the future. Therefore, research should be carried out on wild animal microbes and the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases. In addition, we should establish an analysis framework and an evaluation technology system for the risk assessment and early warning of potential animal-derived emerging infectious diseases. These measures will not only increase our understanding of the background information of wild animal microbe communities, but more importantly, also enable in-depth analysis, discovery, early warning, and prediction of major new animal-borne infectious diseases that might occur in the future, and even help reduce the interval between discovery and response, minimize the impact and loss on society and economy, intervene the emergence or epidemics of diseases as soon as possible, and comprehensively improve the response and control capabilities for emerging and sudden infectious diseases.