key: cord-343440-g4193sis authors: Meseko, Clement; Shittu, Ismaila; Adedeji, Adeyinka title: The bush meat trade thrives in Nigeria despite anxiety over coronavirus date: 2020-07-30 journal: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg DOI: 10.1093/trstmh/traa060 sha: doc_id: 343440 cord_uid: g4193sis nan health concern. The expedition led the team to a bush meat market in a megacity Lagos in the southwest of the country on the same day that Chinese scientists hypothesized that coronavirus may have been transmitted through pangolins, which are peculiar, slow, harmless ant-eating mammals that are highly sought after for their meat (as a delicacy) and their scales (for use in traditional medicine). Although the capture of and trade in pangolins has been banned worldwide because they are an endangered species, the animal is still smuggled from Asian and African countries. Generally in Africa, and in Nigeria in particular, pangolins are traded alongside other species like crocodiles at active bush meat markets ( Figures 1A and B) . Previously, the same team visited another bush meat market in oil-rich south Nigeria, where a rich diversity of killed wildlife were on display ( Figures 1C and D) . It has been claimed that coronavirus may have been transmitted to humans through a probable pangolin intermediate host of the virus that is known to be found in bats reservoir, premised on a report from Chinese researchers, who found a coronavirus in smuggled pangolins which had a 99% genetic match with the virus currently circulating around the world. However, this similarity is not applicable to the entire genome, but relates only to a specific site, which is known as the receptorbinding domain. 4 A few years ago, the Ebola virus was initially transmitted to a toddler in West Africa and >10 000 lives were lost in <1 y. Bats are a known natural reservoir of many pathogens including coronaviruses, Ebola, Marburg, Hendra, Nipah and Lyssavirus, and researchers have found coronaviruses in Nigerian bats. 5 These flying foxes are abundant in wildlife parks and zoos and are also intimately associated with humans in city centre streets and homes. The many pathogens they harbour are not well understood and will necessitate vigilance and monitoring through surveillance and risk analysis. The first case of a coronavirus virus detected in Nigeria was 'imported' from Italy, in the same manner in which a Liberian diplomat 'imported' the Ebola virus, ironically through the same international airport in Lagos. Just as with Ebola, we failed to stop the virus at the border. The Italian visitor to Nigeria graciously checked himself into a hospital when he became ill. C. Meseko et al. The case was missed, probably because he was not exhibiting clinical signs, just like the first case of coronavirus in Egypt. This phenomenon, now associated with SARS-CoV-2, has further increased the risk of expanded contact exposure to coronavirus and has heightened anxiety, not only in Nigeria's megacities, but also across the country. Many citizens in Nigeria were already wearing surgical masks and observing social distancing, even before there was any scientific evidence of community transmission. Meanwhile, diverse wildlife are hunted and brought for sale to the thriving bush meat markets of southern Nigeria. The species we observed included antelopes, grass cutters, porcupines, crocodiles, turtles and pangolins. Interestingly, many of these animals were displayed alive (some were juveniles) and the market can be described as a live animal (wildlife) market ( Figures 1A and 1B) . The lesson from the field includes the pos-sibility of interspecies intermingling and sharing pathogens, akin to current observations regarding the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China. Also, in real time we observed the exploitation of wildlife resources that may contribute to the extinction of endangered species such as the pangolin. In the midst of upheaval, especially in Nigeria, bureaucrats and politicians may miss the fact at the heart of this matter, which is that SARS-CoV-2 would have remained innocuous in animals if conditions had not favoured its transmission to humans. It may be in China today, and if care is not taken then it could become an African problem tomorrow, whenever and wherever the conditions are similarly favourable. The lesson here is that policymakers should not lose sight of the root cause of the coronavirus virus outbreak. One health initiative, to proactively identify the animal sources of coronaviruses and similar pathogens, is important for the prevention of new outbreaks. Sustainable measures for the control Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene of zoonoses and safeguarding public health are more imperative now than ever before. Global trends in emerging infectious diseases Authors' contributions: CM, IS and AA contributed to the study design, study implementation and writing of the paper. CM, IS and AA read and approved the final version. CM is the guarantor of the paper. Competing interests: None declared.Ethical approval: Not required.