🤝 @uantwerpen.be || @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social || AfricaMuseum || @belspo.be

⚠️ The study provides crucial insights into the risks associated with the wild meat supply chain, emphasising the need for enhanced surveillance and mitigation strategies to prevent future zoonotic spillovers.

🌍 The screened species were traded for their meat in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Brussels, Belgium, underlining the global nature of this issue.

🦍 Among the species tested were primates, rodents, hyraxes, artiodactyls, and carnivores. Notably, they found:
• Human picobirnavirus
• Simian foamy viruses
• Rotavirus A
— all posing potential risks for human infection. Several of these viruses were detected in new mammal hosts for the first time.

🔬 Researchers screened 101 samples from 28 wild African mammals and one domesticated species and identified 16 virus strains, some closely related to known zoonotic pathogens, viruses that can jump from animals to humans.

🤝 @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social || AfricaMuseum || @belspo.be

📚 Scientific output:
· 80+ identification reports
· 6 peer-reviewed scientific papers published, one under review
· 2 oral presentations & 6 posters
· Participation in 4 conferences & symposiums, and 2 working groups
· Multiple lab tours and workshops

🤝 6 collaborative projects with colleagues at @itmantwerp.bsky.social, @fodvolksgezondheid.bsky.social, @sciensano.be, ILVO, and @uantwerpen.be

🧬 BopCo generated and published 909 DNA sequences to online DNA reference databases

82 identification requests processed

➡️ 27 one-time requests from a diverse group of partners (including universities, government agencies, industry, museums, and private individuals)

🔁 55 recurring requests:
· 44 related to bird strikes
· 11 involving protected CITES-listed species

A live demonstration of the wild meat sampling protocol—as performed at the airport within the INTERCEPT project—was also given.

A big thank-you to everyone involved for making this an inspiring day of science in action! 🔬🌍
#africamuseum #BopCo #Howest #INTERCEPT

The visit continued with a tour of the vertebrate collections, presented by their curators. One particularly memorable moment was seeing the DART mass spectrometer in action.

Lastly, a visit to the molecular labs, where BopCo explained how tissue and DNA samples are collected, stored, and curated.

The students enjoyed a tour of the collection and discovered the work of ENFORCE (enforce.africamuseum.be/en), the Belgian centre of expertise for forensic wood research. BopCo contributed to the training by presenting its work carried out within INTERCEPT (www.naturalsciences.be/en/science/r...).

For more details on this topic read the paper published in the North-Western Journal of Zoology, biozoojournals.ro/nwjz/content...

The species identification was carried out through morphological analysis and with BopCo's confirmation using DNA-based techniques.
🌱 While this species shows great adaptability, its invasive potential in outdoor environments in Belgium remains low — mainly due to our cold winter climate.

🧬 These arachnids are usually found in humid forests, but are highly adaptable and have increasingly been reported in glasshouse environments across Europe.
📅 The detections in 2024 and 2025 in a glasshouse in Meise Botanic Garden, mark the first records of this species in Belgium.

👉 A great example of the value of biological collections and international scientific collaboration!

This discovery, published in Science (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...), offers new insights into the transmission of WNV.

BopCo is proud to have contributed to this research by sharing identified specimens collected within the MEMO project.

🤝 BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences || #ITM Institute of Tropical Medicine || #africamuseum Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika || #BELSPO - Belgian Science Policy Office

✅ This work underscores the importance of accurate and rapid species identification—whether by expert taxonomists or through DNA barcoding—to support effective vector management strategies and public health efforts.

Read more on this interesting subject here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...