Scientists warn smuggled meat could bring the virus to Britain (AP Photo/Samaritan’s Purse)

Meat smuggled into Britain could spread to deadly Ebola virus to the country, scientists have warned.

Fears have arisen that contaminated ‘bush meat’ from Nigeria, which is brought into the UK and sold illegally in butchers and markets, could cause an outbreak of the disease.

Prof Robert Dingwall, an infectious diseases expert at Nottingham Trent University, warned that poorly prepared meat may have even caused the initial outbreak in West Africa.

He told the Sun: ‘Lots of wild animals carry the virus, and bush meat is often badly prepared.


‘Similar meat that could have caused this outbreak may well end up in a market stall in London.’

Liberian health workers remove the body of a woman who died dafter being infected with Ebola (Picture: EPA/AHMED JALLANZO)

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond called the current outbreak a ‘serious threat’ and said the logical approach to containing it was to ‘provide additional resources to deal with the disease at the source.



The Ebola virus, which has already killed 672 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, has lead to schools being closed and the army setting up quarantine areas in West Africa.

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