★★☆Health and Environmental Concerns as Ugandans Start to Eat Primates

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Vocabulary

*Read the words carefully.

1. endangered /enˈdānjərd/ (adj.) used to describe a type of animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely
2. refuge /ˈrefˌyo͞oj/ (n.) a place that provides shelter or protection
3. primate /ˈprīˌmāt/ (n.) a mammal of an order that includes the lemurs, bush babies, tarsiers, marmosets, monkeys, apes, and humans. They are distinguished by having hands, handlike feet, and forward-facing eyes, and, with the exception of humans, are typically agile tree-dwellers
4. butcher /ˈbo͝oCHər/ (vb.) slaughter or cut up an animal for food; kill someone brutally
5. outbreak /ˈoutˌbrāk/ (n.) the sudden or violent start of something unwelcome, such as war, disease, etc

Article

Health and Environmental Concerns as Ugandans Start to Eat Primates

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(1) The flow of Congolese refugees into western Uganda is raising concerns not only about food security, but also the risk of Ebola virus. Eating primates is a Congolese custom, but the monkeys, chimpanzees and other animals can carry the deadly infection.

(2) Disease experts are calling attention to the danger. So are environmental groups, because chimps are endangered. Lily Ajarova is the director of a chimp refuge in Uganda. She says eating primates is not a traditional custom in Uganda but it is in other countries in Africa.

(3) “Especially Central and Western African countries, there’s a lot of eating of chimpanzees, and it’s the biggest threat to the survival of primates in Africa. To Uganda that has not been the case, but it’s an emerging issue that we are very keen to dig into right now.”

(4) She says she and her team have not yet found chimpanzees being eaten in Uganda, but they have seen other primates being eaten.

(5) “We have encountered local Ugandans actually hunting primates and being in possession of them, and them saying by themselves that ‘Yes, we are going to eat them.'”

(6) She points out that in traditional Ugandan culture, primates are protected as totem animals, or animals representing a clan.

(7) Over the past year, tens of thousands more refugees have crossed into Uganda, fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(8) Daniel Molla of the United Nations World Food Program says most of these refugees live in organized settlements. But he says cuts in food aid have increased pressure on local communities as refugees buy food from the same markets as Ugandans.

(9) But Dr. Monday Busuulwa with the African Field Epidemiology Network says even just handling the meat of infected primates can spread Ebola.

(10) “In the 2007 Bundibugyo outbreak, they confirmed to us that they eat these primates. People who have slaughtered sick chimpanzees or gorillas which are infected with Ebola, and they have butchered them for food, they have ended up getting infected with Ebola. There is a very high likelihood that communities where people eat these non-human primates — the monkeys, the chimpanzees — are likely to get Ebola.”

(11) Over the past year alone, Uganda has suffered from three deadly outbreaks of the virus. Most of the recent outbreaks have happened in the west.

(12) Environmental groups in Uganda are trying to teach people about protecting primates and about the dangers of eating them. But more and more Congolese refugees are arriving every day. As a result, the World Food Program warns that food insecurity in western Uganda is only likely to get worse.

Discussion

*Let’s talk about the article base on the questions below

1. Which do you prefer eating? Meat, vegetables or both? Please explain your answer.
2. Have you ever tried eating exotic meat? If yes, what was it and did you like the taste of it? If no, do you want to try eating exotic meat? Which type of meat would you like to try?
3. Are there any endangered animals or plants in your country? What other endangered animals or plants do you know of that are not from your country?

 

English Compositions

*Let’s make English compositions using the words from the article.

(1) endangered

EX) Disease experts are calling attention to the danger. So are environmental groups, because chimps are endangered.

(2) butcher

EX) People who have slaughtered sick chimpanzees or gorillas which are infected with Ebola, and they have butchered them for food, they have ended up getting infected with Ebola.