30 Per Cent of Game Meat Poisoned

CONSUMING bush meat such as grasscutter (Akrantie) poses serious health hazards to the human body, resulting in chronic diseases and other ailments such as infertility in both men and women and more dangerously death.

This is as a result of pesticides that are used as bait in hunting bush meat in the country, a forensic science laboratory test conducted separately by the Ghana Standard Board and the Chemistry Department of the University of Ghana established.

Chemical analysis of Bush meat samples by the Forensic Science laboratory of the Ghana Standard Board hints of a major disaster of epidemic proportions, if pesticides used in hunting is not curtailed.

The analysis results also showed that the current magnitude of pesticide abuse and misuse is greater than hitherto envisaged and warned of a major health disaster if urgent action is not taken to curb the practice.

Mr. Yaw Agyei-Henaku, a scientific officer with the Ghana Standards Board made these submissions when he presented a paper on chemical analysis of bush meat samples at the opening of a two-day national conference on bush meat crisis in Ghana.

He explained that the analysis, which involved basic screening tests, using solvent extraction techniques and thin layer chromatographic techniques showed that Furadan, a substance belonging to the carbamate class of compounds was used as bait for bush meat trapping.

In a related paper on the health implications of chemical residues in bush meat, Mr. Philip Yeboah of the University of Ghana's Chemistry department, explained that pesticides are a diverse group of chemicals, which have been particularly developed to kill, destroy, repel or mitigate a wide variety of pests, adding they are toxic materials that should not be found in human beings because of the danger it poses.

Continuing, Mr. Yeboah said, a survey by the Conservation International, a non-governmental organisation committed to the conservation of the earth's living natural heritage established that about 30% of game-hunting in Ghana is done through chemical poisoning, stressing that Furadan, a pesticide reported in the survey as being used as bait to hunt bush meat, will require just a speck to kill a human being.

He added that unconscious intake of contaminated bush meat usually causes the most serious effects just as in the case chemical injection through the routine hand to mouth behavior as happens in the case of suicide or homicide attempt.

"Having pesticides or any chemical in edible food such as bush meat is therefore tantamount to poisoning the meat for the consumer", Mr. Yeboah pointed out.

On the effects of chemical contaminants in the human body, the chemistry lecturer said, once a pesticide or such chemical enters an individual, it gets into his blood stream and travels throughout the body, often producing toxic effects in him.

He emphasised that pesticides can have either acute or chronic health effects, some of which can quickly cause illness or death in the exposed system.

"Their acute effects span a range; from mild to severe, depending on the degree of inhibition. Mild symptoms include narrowing of the pupil of the eye and running nose, whilst more severe symptoms may include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, rapid heartbeat, breathing difficulties and death", he said, adding, these symptoms appear within few hours of exposure.

In a keynote address, Mr. Thomas Broni, Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, warned of the extinction of Ghana's wildlife reserves if appropriate action is not taken to curb the practice of hunting.

He therefore called on traditional authorities, stakeholders and individuals to help conserve the nation's wildlife.