Bushmeat, Zoonoses, and the Ecology of Emerging Infectious Disease

Context: Bushmeat hunting and trade connect wildlife, domestic animals, and people through capture, transport, butchery, markets, and consumption. These interfaces can sustain livelihoods and food security, but they also create pathways for zoonotic pathogen spillover. Findings: Evidence from Ebola virus disease, simian retroviruses, coronaviruses, and broader emerging-infectious-disease datasets shows that spillover risk is ecological rather than simply cultural. Risk increases where biodiversity loss, forest fragmentation, high hunting pressure, wildlife stress, dense market networks, and weak biosecurity combine. Mammals, especially bats, rodents, and primates, contribute disproportionately to known zoonotic reservoirs, yet transmission usually requires repeated exposure and enabling social conditions. Implications: Blanket bans can undermine nutrition and conservation if they ignore local dependence and informal economies. Risk reduction is more likely through habitat protection, targeted surveillance, safer handling, regulated trade, livelihood alternatives, and community-led wildlife governance that separates subsistence needs from high-risk commercial supply chains.