In parts of Africa, they call it bush meat. Here at the 8th Annual Retrovirus Conference, researchers are calling the butchering and eating of monkeys a public health threat. The less common HIV-2 came from sooty mangabey monkeys. Both of these events likely happened when the animals were killed and processed as food.
Unrecognized viruses can potentially enter the human community.
Delaporte, a researcher from the University of Montpelier in France, was part of an international team that tested samples from 268 monkeys being sold as meat and from 170 monkeys kept as pets in the African nation of Cameroon. The animals included 16 different primate species. Four of these viruses had never been seen before. Previously, the virus was seen only in chimpanzees in captivity, which were thought to have contracted the infection before their capture. That is why we need to screen more of the African populations at risk.