'Examining the international bushmeat traffic in Belgium: A threat to conservation and public health' by Anne-Lise Chaber, Georgia Kate Moloney, Veronique Renault, Sandrella Morrison-Lanjouw, Mutien Garigliany, Lucette Flandroy, Daniel Pires, Valeria Busoni, Claude Saegerman and Philippe Gaubert in (2023) 16 One Health comments
The carriage of bushmeat into the European Union is an infringement of EU Animal Health and Wildlife Trade legislation and poses a threat to biodiversity and public health. To explore the nature and scale of the international bushmeat trade, seized leaking luggage and passengers arriving at Brussels Zaventem airport from sub-Saharan Africa between 2017 and 2018 were searched for “meat” (bushmeat and livestock) by border control authorities. Visual identification, radiography and genetic analysis were applied to derive information from seized specimens, including at least ten CITES-listed species. We estimate that an average of 3.9 t of bushmeat is smuggled monthly through Brussels. The average consignment of meat seized per passenger was 2.8 kg and 4 kg of bushmeat or domestic livestock meat, respectively. The international trafficking of bushmeat is evidently active, yet penalties are rarely enforced; hence we provide suggestions to simplify law enforcement procedures.
The authors state
Bushmeat is meat derived from wildlife, including all wild, terrestrial or semi-terrestrial animal species [18]. Although wildlife has been hunted for thousands of years, the increase in human population density, infrastructure and access to forest areas is promoting unsustainable levels of bushmeat harvesting, threatening the survival of many wildlife populations [6,7]. Overhunting has the potential to cause local or global extinctions, while also affecting non-target species, species interactions and ecosystem structure and function [6]. There is therefore a need to understand trade dynamics and to reduce pressures on targeted populations. The movement of animal products and close interactions between humans and wildlife also enables the spread of zoonoses and emergence of novel infectious diseases [23,27]. The international movement of illegal meat products which bypass standard regulatory procedures therefore threatens animal and human health through the introduction of pathogens.
In accordance with European Union (EU) Animal Health legislation, the import of personal consignments of meat from third countries into the EU is prohibited (Regulation (EC) 206/2009 and consolidated version, repealed by Regulation (EU) 2019/2122 and consolidated version in 2019). Restrictions on non-commercial imports of products of animal origin are considered safeguarding measures, aiming to prevent the introduction of animal and zoonotic diseases and pests into the EU. Importation of bushmeat could also be an infringement of EU Wildlife Trade legislation (Regulation (EC) 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein, with the most recent amended form in Regulation (EU) 2021/2280) where annex-listed species are brought to the EU illegally. There is currently no general established practise of seizing illegal meat, ensuring investigation of alleged offenses and securing evidence for prosecution through combined enforcement of these regulations, offering support to the perception that importing bushmeat, even from endangered species, can be a low risk, high reward practice [21,24]. While EU Wildlife Trade legislation is generally associated with potentially high national penalties in the case of infringement, the EU Animal Health legislation is still currently not. Factually however, bushmeat from protected species cannot always be visually distinguished from livestock meat. The nature and scale of illegal meat imports, including bushmeat, into the EU is currently unknown as published research offering quantitative evidence is scarce. This is due, in part, to the illegal nature of the practice, meanwhile the concerned Animal Health legislation limits the ability to access and search these products. Evidence of illegal meat entering Europe through commercial flights to Paris and Switzerland has been previously uncovered [9,31] and it is likely that substantial volumes of bushmeat and other animal products are entering undetected through other EU airports. Moreover, once on EU territory, such meat products can be diffused freely throughout the entire EU market.
We describe here an exploration of the nature and scale of the international bushmeat trade in Belgium over a 2-year period from 2017 to 2018. Selected incoming flights from sub-Saharan Africa were intercepted by border control authorities at Brussels Zaventem airport, where all passengers and seized leaking luggage were searched for both bushmeat and domestic livestock meat. Through the systematic inspection of passengers, this study aims to estimate the overall volume of illegal meat entering and transiting through Belgium via commercial flights from Africa. Given the substantial and deleterious impacts associated with the unsustainable and unregulated trade of bushmeat on affected ecosystems, biodiversity and public health, we offer suggestions for active intervention by border control authorities including enhanced surveillance efforts, implementation of stricter penalties and awareness-raising among passengers aimed at discouraging involvement in the illegal importing of meat, with a special focus on bushmeat.
