2024 - Gaubert et al.

Vendors’ perceptions on the bushmeat trade dynamics across West and central Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned on sanitary measures and awareness campaigns

This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the bushmeat trade across West and Central Africa through a survey of 377 professional vendors. Although all respondents agreed that the pandemic had a negative impact on their activities, the effects varied markedly according to national contexts: Côte d'Ivoire experienced strict government trade restrictions perceived negatively by vendors, Cameroon reported no major shutdowns and intensified pangolin meat stockpiling—the world's most trafficked mammal—while Benin experienced supply chain disruption. These divergences reflect the geographical and political realities specific to each country, making it difficult to generalize mitigation measures without accounting for local specificities.
The article highlights a major obstacle to health prevention: surveyed vendors generally did not believe that pangolins played a role in the pandemic, arguing that traditional consumption had never caused illness. Yet genomic mechanisms can rapidly transform a benign viral strain into an emerging infectious disease through host-jumping. The authors recommend targeted awareness campaigns via television and social networks to educate about microbial evolution and zoonotic spillover risks, underscoring the importance of adapting public health policies to local economic and cultural realities in the bushmeat trade context.