Bushmeat is a term that refers to wild animal meat that is used for human consumption. In Africa and Asia, the hunting and handling of bushmeat, especially that of bats, monkeys, rats, snakes and other wild animals, is a very established practice. Indeed, the bushmeat industry is very important within this part of the world. It also has cultural significance and can serve as a chief source of income for many. In some cases, it even fills in food supply gaps for nations experiencing an animal product food shortage. But despite the bushmeat industry’s positive impacts, the handling of such meat can cause devastating viral outbreaks among worldwide populations.

Unlike domesticated animals, wild animals can have mutating diseases that are devastating to the human immune system, since we have not been exposed to them for as long. Of the 75% of emerging infectious diseases that are of zoonotic origin, 71.8% of them arise from wild species. For example, researchers believe that the outbreak of HIV into human populations was most likely caused by a hunter in Cameroon who was infected with the disease after killing, handling, and butchering a chimpanzee for its meat. Also, the cause of the viral outbreak witnessed in the case of SARS-CoV-2 is believed to have occurred via an initial interaction between an undomesticated bat and a human. The past year has shown us all just how devastating it can be when such an infectious disease is released into the human population. 

The only way to mitigate the industry’s capacity to cause viral outbreaks is by ensuring that there are sufficient organizations to provide bushmeat hunters, handlers, and consumers with personal protective equipment (PPE) that they must use when hunting, handling, and consuming the meat. Proper PPE has become important in our daily life and routines as well. For example, regular mask-wearing, handwashing, and social distancing is what helps places like our campus maintain relatively low infection rates. Currently, very few people who partake in the bushmeat industry are using said PPE, which directly results from the lack of organizations that provide bushmeat handlers with protective gear.

Nma Bida Alhaji, a researcher at the University of Ibadan, and colleagues conducted a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study during the year 2015 on 395 north-central Nigerian bushmeat handlers. They discovered that 63.2% of bushmeat hunters and 52.2% of bushmeat vendors reported using personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, face masks, and aprons during the hunting, handling, butchering, and selling process. Indeed, this data shows that more than half of bushmeat hunters and handlers are making sure to use PPE. Yet, all it takes is one non-PPE-wearing handler to get infected with a disease to cause a worldwide viral outbreak. In this small study, around 145 hunters and roughly 89 vendors admitted to not using PPE while handling bushmeat. That is equal to 334 potential instances of transmission that could be avoided if these people were to have access to PPE. 

If you scour the internet, it is not difficult to discern that no groups currently exist whose sole purpose is to provide bushmeat handlers with PPE. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) merely seems to suggest that providing protective information and equipment to affected and neighboring countries is appropriate when the situation is considered to be urgent.  In some of these urgent situations, it is already too late to rectify missed opportunities. Thus, PPE remains largely inaccessible, aside from when bushmeat hunters and handlers, some of whom are vastly uneducated on the potential for viral outbreaks, take it upon themselves to acquire effective protective gear. Until there is at least one organization in existence that makes it their mission to give PPE to every person that is a part of the bushmeat industry, we can expect to witness more viral outbreaks, all of which threaten the state of global health.

Julia Rumberger is a member of the class of 2023 and can be reached at jerumberger@wesleyan.edu

A’Jahni Barclay is a member of the class of 2025 and can be reached at abarclay@wesleyan.edu