Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;23(17):3250-3255.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980020002657. Epub 2020 Jul 7.

Animal-based food systems are unsafe: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) fosters the debate on meat consumption

Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob  1 , Ivanilda Soares Feitosa  2 , Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque  2
Affiliations

Animal-based food systems are unsafe: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) fosters the debate on meat consumption

Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob et al. Public Health Nutr. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: 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.

Design: 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.

Conclusion: 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.

Keywords: Food and nutrition security; Food safety; Food systems; Meat.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
To ban bushmeat consumption is not the solution to prevent future outbreaks in animal-based food systems. FNS, food and nutrition security; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A summary of animal-based food systems strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The path of the virus from the wild ecosystems to human beings. (a) Wildlife consumption; (b) intensive husbandry
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Andersen KG, Rambaut A, Lipkin I et al. (2020) The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Med 26, 450–452. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shereen MA, Khan S, Kazmi A et al. (2020) COVID-19 infection: origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses. J Adv Res 24, 91–98. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cawthorn DM & Hoffman LC (2015) The bushmeat and food security nexus: a global account of the contributions, conundrums, and ethical collisions. Food Res Int 76, 906–925.
    1. Jones BA, Grace D, Kock R et al. (2013) Zoonosis emergence linked to agricultural intensification and environmental change. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 110, 8399–8404. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yang N, Liu P, Li W et al. (2020) Permanently ban wildlife consumption. Science 367, 1434–1435. - PubMed

Publication types