Health experts warning: Think twice before eating bushmeat

The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa that killed at least 28,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, has been linked to the consumption of infected primates. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Are you a consumer of meat from wildlife? Before your next bush cuisine, please take a pose and contemplate the potential risks, because eating bush meat could potentially leave you fighting a deadly disease.

This is according to a report titled ‘‘Eating Wild Animals: Rewards, Risks, and Recommendations’’, released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

The report, put together by analysing studies done in Africa, Kenya included, contains anecdotal and empirical evidence that there is a real threat of an outbreak of pandemics, as a result of consumption of bushmeat.

Presenting the report at the ongoing 8th World One Health Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, ILRI’s Gloria Grace Randolf advised consumers of bushmeat, “If you can’t stop, at least make sure that you go about it in less harmful ways,” she said.

In Africa, the report states, the volume of wild meat extracted is estimated at between one and five million tonnes per year.

The three groups of most important consumed wildlife are large- bodied animals with hooves (such as antelopes), primates, then rodents. Snakes and monitor lizards come a distant fourth.

Large and hooved animals, also called ungulates, account for the most of zoonotic pathogens – germs stemming from animals and transmissible to humans.

The key pathogens that scientists are studying closely include Ebola and Marburg, hepatitis, herpes, human T-cell lymphotropic, monkeypox and simian immunodeficiency viruses.

The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa that killed at least 28,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, has been linked to encroachment, and consumption of infected primates.

Minor outbreaks were also reported in parts of Nigeria and Mali and isolated cases occurring in Senegal, United Kingdom and Italy.

However, fruit bats have been indicated as the primary host of the virus, which is then transmitted to primates through bat droppings.

 In the case of West Africa, a boy called Emile Ouamuono, then aged two and considered the index case, is believed to have contracted the Ebola virus from the Angolan free-tailed bats while playing under a tree infested by the chiropterans.

Consumption of wild meat is popular in the region, together with Central Africa, with saltwater hippos, turtles, crocodiles, carpet pythons, apes, and other bird species are popular with rural and urban residents.

On the other hand, initial outbreaks of Covid-19 were linked to wildlife markets in Wuhan, China, where various species, including bats and pangolins, were sold for meat. The open markets are locally known as “wet markets”.

The pandemic demonstrated the enormous potential threat of emerging infectious diseases.

Africa struggled with containing the spread of the virus due to extreme poverty, weak healthcare systems, mistrust by citizens towards their respective governments due to governance failures, and, in some countries, conflicts.

Here in Kenya, despite the consequences of Covid-19, some individuals are yet to be convinced of limiting human-wildlife interactions.

A recent study captured in ILRI’s report, focused on  in six villages in Taita Taveta County, Kenya, and Rombo District, Tanzania.

Hundreds of people who were interviewed about their wild meat consumption habits, knowledge of Covid-19 and perceptions of disease risks, showed that 70 per cent of respondents reported that the pandemic had no impact on the likelihood of them eating wild meat.

Between 1941 and 2021 there have been 91 spillover events, leading to 25 zoonotic diseases.

According to the report, zoonotic pathogens are to blame for between 70 and 75 per cent of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans.

Of the emerging zoonotic diseases, approximately 70 per cent have wild animal origins.

However, it is not necessarily that it is the act of eating that leads to zoonotic infection: infections come about due to exposure to animal body fluids and faeces during the handling and butchering of wild animals.

Hunting of wild animals remains an important source of food, ethnomedicine and income, the report states.

As such, it recommends proper regulation of wild meat markets, raising awareness of zoonotic disease risks, and fostering community engagement in wildlife management.

Gardy Chacha is an Internews Earth Journalism Network 2024 Fellow