Bushmeat

Bushmeat is meat from wildlife hunted for human consumption, specifically in parts of Africa, Asia, and South America. Bushmeat is commonly harvested through unregulated or subsistence hunting practices. Bushmeat often consists of local small mammals in an area, such as primates, bats, and rodents, but can also refer to small birds and reptiles.

In a public health context, bushmeat is of concern due to its association with the transmission of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola and HIV, as well as other emerging infectious diseases linked to the handling, butchering, and consumption of wild animals. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the world.

The numbers of animals killed and traded as bushmeat in 1994 in West and Central Africa were thought to be unsustainable. By 2005, commercial harvesting and trading of bushmeat was considered a threat to biodiversity. As of 2016, 301 terrestrial mammals were threatened with extinction due to hunting for bushmeat including non-human primates, even-toed ungulates, bats, diprotodont marsupials, rodents and carnivores occurring in developing countries.