Ebola's Severity Cannot Curb High Consumption of Wild Animals in Congo

Illustration of a meat seller in a traditional market. (Sora K Follow-Pexels)

JAKARTA - Sellers of wild animal meat at the Masina Market in the capital of Congo do not always display their merchandise openly. Buyers can ask for giant swamp rodents or cut antelope body parts if they want them.

However, AP reported that a number of animals that are generally rarely consumed are still openly traded in other markets in Congo. Like the female traders who sell live caterpillars in large baskets at the Kinshasa Market.

For many people in the Congo and elsewhere in Central and West Africa, wild animal meat is an important food commodity and part of the culture.

Even a disease as nasty as Ebola, which is currently ravaging eastern Congo, has failed to stem demand for wild animal meat in Congo.

The average wild animal to be consumed comes from the Congo Basin, a vast forest ecosystem also called the second lungs of the Earth.

The Congo basin is rich in a variety of wildlife, from large apes to snakes - both of which are hunted for their meat. One consequence of the consumption of these animals for local residents is exposure to zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.

Although Ebola generally does not spread through food, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a number of Ebola cases in Africa are linked to hunting, cutting, and processing meat from infected animals.

"Once there is an interaction between humans, animals, and the environment, we will often experience outbreaks like this," said an expert from the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tolbert Geewleh Nyenswah.

"And this is why an integrated health approach in dealing with viral outbreaks is very important, because we are still interacting with bats, and our hunters are still killing monkeys, and we are close to the environment," he continued.

Smoked meat from wildlife hunted for human consumption is seen on the side of a road in Ghana. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ebola and Wildlife Meat Links

The government of the Congo announced that an Ebola outbreak had hit the area on May 15, 2026. Since then, 220 cases of Ebola-related deaths have occurred in Congo and more than 1,000 cases are suspected of being related to the disease.

The Ebola-carrying virus is estimated to have spread undetected for weeks, and the World Health Organization (WHO) suspects that the spread is much greater than has been reported.

Ebola, named after a tributary of the Congo River, was first discovered in 1976 and currently the outbreak is simultaneously hitting Congo and South Sudan.

The disease outbreak is believed to have originated from a virus that is transmitted from infected animals to humans, such as fruit bats. According to experts, cross-species infections often occur when people process and consume wild animal meat.

Microbiologist and advisor to the Ugandan Ministry of Health on the epidemic, Dr. Misaki Wayengera, said that some people still deny the link between the Ebola outbreak and its appearance in the community of people who consume wild animal meat.

Some people also still do not know information about the health threat of eating wild animal meat.

"It's very difficult to change those habits," Wayengera said.

In fact, the symptoms of Ebola in the form of a deadly hemorrhagic fever that is transmitted through direct contact with the patient's body fluids are sometimes considered by some other communities in Africa not to be a disease, but to have a mystical smell due to evil curses.

Illustration of Ebola patient care. (Wikimedia Commons-Daniel Bausch-Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases-National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC)

The Ebola virus is responsible for 17 outbreaks in Congo and many other outbreaks in the region.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak, which occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, infected 28,000 people and killed 11,300.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - which studied the risk of Ebola from the consumption and handling of wild animal meat after the epidemic in West Africa - Ebola transmission from animals to humans is rare, but "the consequences are still terrible."

Once Ebola infects one person, the virus then spreads through close contact with the body fluids of sick or dead patients, such as sweat, blood, feces, or vomit. Health workers without adequate protective gear are considered particularly vulnerable.

While the current Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola that has no cure or vaccine.

In addition to being hit by Ebola, Eastern Congo is home to rebel groups and pockets of refugees from people fleeing armed conflict in the region.