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Ebola: Is bushmeat behind the outbreak?
BBC News Health ^ | October 18, 2014 | Melissa Hogenboom

Posted on 10/18/2014 6:47:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Bushmeat is believed to be the origin of the current Ebola outbreak. The first victim's family hunted bats, which carry the virus. Could the practice of eating bushmeat, which is popular across Africa, be responsible for the current crisis?

The origin has been traced to a two-year-old child from the village of Gueckedou in south-eastern Guinea, an area where batmeat is frequently hunted and eaten.

The infant, dubbed Child Zero, died on 6 December 2013. The child's family stated they had hunted two species of bat which carry the Ebola virus.

Bushmeat or wild animal meat covers any animal that is killed for consumption, principally chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats and monkeys. It can even include porcupines, rats and snakes.

In some remote areas it is a necessary source of food - in others it has become a delicacy.

In Africa's Congo Basin, people eat an estimated five million tonnes of bushmeat per year, according to the Centre of International Forestry Research....

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africa; bushmeat; bushmeatsfault; ebola; epidemic
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To: vetvetdoug

How about cows? They can raise and eat alot of Big Macs.


41 posted on 10/18/2014 9:27:46 PM PDT by Patriot Babe
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To: DAC21

I suddenly lost my appetite.


42 posted on 10/18/2014 9:34:57 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
From when it was just beginning. Very interesting post and article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3188165/posts
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2713707/Secret-trade-monkey-meat-unleash-Ebola-UK-How-appetite-African-delicacies-British-markets-stalls-spread-killer-virus.html
43 posted on 10/18/2014 9:36:56 PM PDT by Chgogal (Obama "hung the SEALs out to dry, basically exposed them like a set of dog balls..." CMH)
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To: Molon Labbie

keyboard spew alert


44 posted on 10/18/2014 9:54:03 PM PDT by SteveH (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.)
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To: RichInOC

“You can whip our milk but you can’t beat our meat!”
Bush & Sons Butchers and ... dairy products.


45 posted on 10/18/2014 10:07:23 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: DAC21

Ebola is Bushmeat’s Revenge.


46 posted on 10/18/2014 10:53:51 PM PDT by Pelham ("This is how they do it in Mexico"- California State Motto)
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To: 353FMG

The disease is believed to be endemic to Pteropodidae, Old World Fruit bats. These don’t eat mosquitos, which aren’t vectors. These communal bats are old species carrying some nasty viruses. It does not kill them outright. Monkeys, apes and people are not natural carriers of the virus. It’s burns through us, killing people quickly. The consumption of bat meat must end.


47 posted on 10/19/2014 12:07:31 AM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: KoRn

You are a cunning linguist.


48 posted on 10/19/2014 2:13:52 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Savages. Chimps? Disgusting. If they want to live like this, fine, but keep them out of America.


49 posted on 10/19/2014 3:57:52 AM PDT by montag813
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To: Bogie
Maybe it is time for Jewish dietary laws.

If Peter had his way, Christians would be obliged to follow them. Btw, there has never been a recall of any kind of kosher meat in the US.

50 posted on 10/19/2014 3:59:17 AM PDT by montag813
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think a hateful, incendiary, video is behind this Ebola outbreak, and that no one is more outraged than President O-Blowa, who will pivot and focus like a laser on it (after he gets in a few more rounds of golf).


51 posted on 10/19/2014 4:25:38 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bush meat properly named by a democrate, STAY OUT THE BUSHES!


52 posted on 10/19/2014 4:30:16 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: 353FMG

As far as I know fruit bats eat fruit rather than bugs.


53 posted on 10/19/2014 5:26:08 AM PDT by logic101.net (How many more children must die on the altar of gun free zones?)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
And apes and monkeys are so genetically close to humans that we should expect to get diseases from them.

Apes and monkeys carry a form of herpes that causes almost no discomfort for the monkeys but is highly lethal to humans (68% case fatality rate). Luckily, we do not catch this virus easily.

Most emerging pathogens are zoonoses. They circulate in their animal host, often without causing much problem at all, but then get into humans and result in severe, often fatal, disease.

54 posted on 10/19/2014 5:59:41 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: 353FMG
But these flying rats feed mainly on flying prey like mosquitoes.

The species (3 different ones) of bats in question are migratory fruit-eating bats. Apparently, they are considered a delicacy there. They have been known to carry the disease, as well as Marburg (Ebola's nastier cousin) and the disease may be contracted either by having cuts on the hands while preparing the animals or eating the undercooked meat. I would presume the bats excrete the virus also, so contaminated fruit might be a problem as well.

55 posted on 10/19/2014 10:48:39 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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