e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    Wild meat consumption in urban Sierra Leone during Coronavirus-19

    Sainge, Moses, Wusha-Conteh, Fartimah, Fa, Julia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1572-9828, Sullivan, Martin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-0483 and Cuni-Sanchez, Aida (2023) Wild meat consumption in urban Sierra Leone during Coronavirus-19. Oryx: journal of fauna and flora international, 57 (4). pp. 507-511. ISSN 0030-6053

    [img]
    Preview
    Published Version
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (223kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Wild meat is associated with an increased zoonotic disease risk. In some West African countries, wild meat consumption declined as the result of official restrictions following Ebola outbreaks in 2013-2016 and was also affected by the current Coronavirus pandemic. In Sierra Leone, a country affected by these diseases, we documented wild meat use in four markets in the capital Freetown. From a total of 197 interviews, we analysed the influence of age and sex on the types of wild meat eaten and reasons for their consumption. We found that more males than females consumed wild meat often, and in both sexes, taste was the main reason for eating wild meat. Age did not affect wild meat consumption among females. Evidence for changes in consumer behaviour in response to zoonotic disease risk was mixed. While some consumers avoided wild meat because of disease, nobody stated it was the primary reason for not eating wild meat, and monkeys (presumed higher zoonotic disease risk) were amongst the species cited as being consumed often. More work is needed to help identify the best pathway towards safe and sustainable consumption of wild meat in urban Sierra Leone.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    214Downloads
    6 month trend
    247Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record