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This study of hunters and their exposure to wildlife blood and body fluids entails accompanying hunters on their hunting trips, noting the locations visited, the techniques used, the species of animal hunted, and any injuries that occurred. The study is aimed at assessing the routes of transmission of animal pathogens and devising ways in which hunters and butchers might be able to reduce their exposure to zoonotic pathogens.
Hunting is common behavior to rural central African villages, particularly in forest areas. Hunted wildlife is used to supplement household nutrition, particularly in areas where commercial supply of domestic animal meat is unavailable. It is also used to supplement income where access to markets or passing traffic permits sale of animal carcasses or smoked meat.
Increasingly, the hunting and butchering of wildlife, and especially of non-human primates, is recognized as a potential risk for both individual and community health. Wild animals are known to be infected with a number of infectious microbes and some of these are harmful to human health. Contact with wildlife, e.g. hunting, can increase the possibility of infection with these agents. Hunters have been found to be infected with microbes such as Simian Foamy Virus (SFV) from hunted primates, and hunting of nonhuman primates infected with SIV is thought to be the pathway that gave raise to HIV.
Hunters are potentially exposed to infections through bites and scratches from live animals, through animal blood contact with wounds when carrying carcasses in backpack baskets, through injuries from knives/machetes during the butchering process, and through the faecal-oral route during and following butchering. However, more information about the degree of interaction of hunters with wild animal carcasses is needed as the risks posed by hunting are currently unquantified. Measuring specific risk points and degree of risk associated with different species/hunting techniques could be used to recommend behavioral changes that would benefit hunters and wider community health.
The objective of this study is to 1) identify microbial pathways during hunting and butchering processes, 2) identify the amount of time people involved in hunting and butchering are exposed to potential infections, 3) identify specific high risk behaviors permitting potential microbial infections, 4) identify hunting and consumption preferences of rural village inhabitants, and 5) identify perceptions of disease origins among rural village inhabitants.
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