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Bush Meat Trade Poses Virus Threat


Bush meat trade poses virus threat
Source: PLoS One: Zoonotic Viruses Associated with Illegally Imported Wildlife Products

Nearly 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of zoonotic origin, with majority of them originating from contact with wildlife. These infectious diseases acquired via the wildlife trade are increasingly becoming a concern to global public health.

SARS, avian flu, swine flu and Ebola all began in animals before somehow mutating and spreading to humans. SARS emerged as a respiratory and gastrointestinal disease in southwest China and within months had spread to 29 other countries, eventually leading the 8098 cases and 714 deaths. Masked palm civets traded in the markets of Guangdong were found to be infected and a large proportion of the early cases were restaurant workers who butchered wildlife from these markets.

In a new study conducted by Smith K. M. and colleagues published in the PLoS One journal, they reported potentially dangerous viruses entering the US through illegally imported wildlife products. For this study bush meat was defined according to the Oxford Dictionary as the meat of African wild animals. The researchers examined bush meat passing through the John F Kennedy (JFK) airport in New York from October 2008 to September 2010. Also at the beginning of April 2010, products seized from the Philadelphia, Washington Dulles, George Bush International, Houston and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International were included in the study.

Figure 1: Non-human primate bush meat specimens confiscated at US airports. 
Examples of smuggled simian bush meat (a) skull (b) hand (c) skull and torso, and (d) arm.
The researchers examined 44 animals – 35 rodents and 9 primates. Simian foamy virus (SFV) and two herpesviruses - cytomegaloviruses (CMV) and lymphocryptoviruses (LCV) - were detected in the smuggled non-human primate (NHP) bush meat. SFV and CMV were detected in two non-human primates originating from Nigeria namely the Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee and the greater white-nosed monkey. These non-human primates have been classified has “endangered” and “vulnerable” respectively by the International Union for Conservation.

SFV is a zoonotic infection of humans. The mode of transmission is poorly understood and infected people reported sustaining a NHP exposure (mostly bites) others did not, suggesting a less invasive mode of infection is possible. These viruses are probably not easily spread from human-to-human, although persistent infection has been documented. Several SFV-positive people reported donating blood while infected and because blood banks do not screen for SFV, secondary transmission via contaminated blood donations may be possible.

The herpesviruses detected are not considered dangerous to humans however related viruses cause disease in humans.

These results are the first demonstration that illegal bush meat importation could act as a conduit for pathogen spread, and therefore implementation of disease surveillance of the wildlife trade will help facilitate prevention of disease emergence.

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