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The amount of illegal bushmeat smuggled into the country has doubled in five years, leading to fears that the demand in Britain could be a source of a new pandemic in the future.

A total of 1,149kg of meat from wild animals was seized by Border Agency staff at airports in 2018/19, up from 946kg the previous year and 544kg in 2014/15, according to a response by the Home Office to a freedom of information request made by the Daily Mirror.

ild animals have been hunted by rural communities in Africa for many thousands of years, but in recent decades have been smuggled into cities in Britain, Europe and the USA – part of a lucrative international crime racket.

Experts have warned that the bushmeat trade is not only a threat to wild animals but could result in more zoonotic diseases being transmitted to humans.

(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)

Dr Ben Garrod, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, warned: “While this global pandemic started in Wuhan, it is just as possible for the next one to start in London or Washington.

"Currently, animal meat and body parts are being illegally transported all around the world.

“Airlines and border agencies are great at stopping people, drugs and weapons from being smuggled. But here we are with something more fundamentally dangerous than any act of terrorism or natural disaster, yet it is allowed to go largely unchecked.

“Until those transporting products of animal origins internationally are stopped, we are going to see primates, pangolins and other exotic, endangered animals coming into the UK, Europe, USA and Asia.

"Unless that stops we are going to see more epidemics and more species in decline.”

Dr Garrod warned this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, as much of the meat confiscated is not comprehensively recorded before it is incinerated.

He called for widespread DNA testing on meat brought into the UK to establish species and origin, adding: “We need to make sure that where meat is legiti- mately brought in, it is safe and it’s what it says it is, in terms of species.”