WildLife Group
of the SAVA
significance and especially in rural and less developed
economies. Such communities may rely heavily on
bush meat as a vital nutritional, economic and cultural
component of their livelihoods.
A large number of scientific papers have been
published in which many aspects of the bush
meat trade have been investigated. More recent
publications also put more emphasis on the
importance of zoonosis and the One Health Approach.
Some of these studies claim that by estimate 282
grams of bush meat are consumed per person per day
in the Congo Basin.
It is stated that three million tons of bush meat is
harvested in Central Africa annually whilst market
surveys estimating that over 900,000 kilograms of
bush meat are sold annually in Nigeria alone. In
many instances profit margins are large enough to
create sufficient incentive for the bush meat trade to
allow bush meat to reach national and international
markets.
The bush meat trade is valued at 150 million USD in
the Ivory Coast as example and it is estimated that
five tons of bush meat are smuggled from Africa to
Europe per week. Worldwide, wildlife is second only
to narcotics among black market trades.
Contact with wildlife through the bush meat trade
may put people at risk of infection with zoonotic
pathogens such as simian immunodeficiency
virus, human T-cell lymphotrophic virus, simian
foamy virus, monkeypox virus, Ebola and Marburg
filoviruses, anthrax, herpes viruses, hepatitis viruses,
paramyxoviruses and various parasites. Hunters come
into contact with wildlife significantly more than
non-hunters. Participants in surveys r