As Ebola scourges Congo, experts warn of link to eating wild animals

[littlemissmartypants]

Source: AP

The vendors of wild meat at the sprawling Masina Market in the Congolese capital don’t always display their goods openly. Customers must ask for whatever they’re looking for, whether it is a giant swamp rodent or the severed parts of an antelope.

Others occasionally sell in the open, like the women who preside over impossibly large baskets of squirming caterpillars at the market in Kinshasa.

For many in Congo and elsewhere in Central and West Africa wild meat is a craving and a key part of the cultural milieux. Even a disease as punishing as Ebola, currently ravaging a remote part of eastern Congo, has failed to stem demand for wild meat from the Congo Basin, an expansive forested ecosystem sometimes called Earth’s second lung.

The Congo Basin is rich in all kinds of wildlife, from great apes to serpents — both of which are hunted for their meat. One consequence for locals is exposure to zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ebola-congo-wild-meat-3ef8a5555bce331d1c0f9af50940e028

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) —
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Updated 1:22 AM EDT, May 30, 2026

[Vegan4life]

1. The revenge of the murdered innocents

As Morrisey sang, meat is murder. And not just for the helpless non-humans.

[uppityperson]

2. Education goes slowly regarding reservoirs and spread of ebola.

Distrust of health care providers hurts also. Changing long held cultural practices of food procurement, and dealing with the ill and dead bodies is a slow painful process.

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. They eat bush meat because nothing else is available

They can't go to a market that has plastic wrapped refrigerated meat for sale. HIV started as a zoonotic virus too.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Close but no cigar.

For many in Congo and elsewhere in Central and West Africa wild meat is a craving and a key part of the cultural milieux.

A direct quote from the article.

[yardwork]

6. I saw that quote in the article and winced.

I've traveled in sub-Saharan Africa, and not in tourist safaris. Many people there live on a few dollars a month. There are supermarkets and groceries but the prices are similar to here. Many people could never, ever afford to buy there.

It's not fair to call a desire to eat a "craving" as if it was some kind of exotic hobby. Shame on that publication.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. When people are hungry and growing food is difficult...

Due to the disruptions of war and climate change, they are bound to seek out additional food sources. That's on top of everything that you mentioned.

It's a big mess. It makes me sad. Hunger could be eliminated if we cared enough to try.

We have an expanded hunger problem in the USA. We used to have a mechanism to track it.

The psychopaths made sure to do away with that little inconvenient money waster.

Just like they killed USAID and are trying to end funding for the WFP.

Thanks for the reply, uppityperson. It's good to see you. ❤️

[BigmanPigman]

7. This post made me rewatch Tony Bourdain's Congo trip

season 1, epsoode 8 Parts Unknown. It was quite the adventure...
Watch for free...

Watch Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown Season 1 Episode 8 | P https://share.google/771eSZaE2SlTfUsD4