Banned ‘bushmeat’ smuggled into the UK is being sold for home delivery via social media, the Mail can reveal – as experts warn it could be contaminated with deadly ebola.
Amid fears over a rise in the easy availability of potentially dangerous illegal meat – including monkeys, porcupines, African cane rats and lizards – accounts on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are offering ‘doorstep delivery’.
The term bushmeat covers wild mammals, reptiles and birds hunted in West and Central Africa, Asia and the Americas.
While meat imported legally into the UK must pass stringent health checks to ensure it is safe, smuggled bushmeat dodges these.
The Mail found one TikTok profile, called LocalFoodsDiary based in Lagos, Nigeria, that claims to have ‘freshly dried’ porcupine and ‘grasscutter’ – known as the greater cane rat – ‘very much available’.
It also boasts how easy it is to get bushmeat into the UK, showing a package with a London postcode and the caption: ‘Bushmeat package arrived UK.’
It recently offered a ‘United Kingdom Combo deal’ including ‘1 antelope or grasscutter’ ‘1 full goat meat’ and ‘50 pieces of dried snails’ for £397.
Another profile called ‘kjsaraha’ offers UK ‘doorstep delivery’ within 11 days and ‘express’ shipping for ‘contraband’ items including ‘ponmo fish, dried snail, kilishi [a form of jerky] and dried meat’.
Banned ‘bushmeat’ smuggled into the UK is being sold via social media and experts have warned it could be contaminated with ebola
The seller above uses her TikTok to advertise dried porcupine and alligator lizard
The bushmeat could be carrying foot-and-mouth, anthrax, the deadly ebola virus, TB or cholera, experts have warned
TikTok has since removed two of the accounts selling the potentioully dangerous meat, highlighted by the Mail
Nearly 100 tons of illegal meat was confiscated at Dover last year – a rise of more than 75 per cent on 2023.
The Food Standards Agency advises consumers not to buy or eat bushmeat or other illegal meat, as it may be unsafe.
Experts have warned that it could be carrying serious infectious diseases, including foot-and-mouth, anthrax, the deadly ebola virus, TB or cholera.
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, from the Countryside Alliance, warned ‘the illicit selling of bushmeat can present a severe biosecurity threat’ and urged the Government to make social media firms ‘take responsibility’.
There is a ban on importing meat from outside the European single market, including items bought online.
A Government spokesman said it is ‘unequivocal that importing illegal meat is unacceptable’.
TikTok has removed two of the profiles highlighted by the Mail. The social media account holders and Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, have been contacted for comment.
