Abstract
The current pandemic restarts a debate on permanently banning wildlife consumption in an effort to prevent further public health threats. In this commentary, we offer two ideas to enhance the discussion on foodborne zoonotic diseases in food systems. First, we focus on the probable consequences that the loss of access to wildlife could cause to the status of food and nutrition security of many people in developing countries that rely on bushmeat to subsist. Second, we argue that all animal-based food systems, especially the ones based on intensive husbandry, present food safety threats. To ban the access to bushmeat without a rational analysis of all human meat production and consumption in the global animal-based food system will not help us to prevent future outbreaks.
Highlights
The proximal origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) involves bushmeat, such as bats (Rhinolophus affinis) and Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica)(1), but we have a lack of evidence about the intermediary sources of origin and transfer to humans[2]
SARS-CoV-2 fosters a debate on permanently banning wildlife consumption in an effort to prevent further public health threats related to foodborne zoonotic diseases[5]
We argue that the loss of access to wildlife can compromise the status of food and nutrition security of many people in developing countries that rely on bushmeat to subsist
Summary
The proximal origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) involves bushmeat, such as bats (Rhinolophus affinis) and Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica)(1), but we have a lack of evidence about the intermediary sources of origin and transfer to humans[2]. SARS-CoV-2 fosters a debate on permanently banning wildlife consumption in an effort to prevent further public health threats related to foodborne zoonotic diseases[5]. Such zoonoses are a global menace, and little is known about the mechanisms that make these diseases emerge. Spatial modelling demonstrates the significant risk of these zoonoses appears in regions of tropical forests, which are associated with a high diversity of mammals[6] In these regions, there is great cultural diversity associated with these animals and many thousands of people whose ways of life depend on them.
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