KENYA: Kenya's meat eaters have never been sure if their beef stew contains cuts from a cow - or from a buffalo, zebra or even donkey. Previous studies suggest almost half the beef or goat sold in Nairobi contains illegal bushmeat. Now scientists have developed a genetic technique to determine what is on sale.
Charles Kimwele, a researcher at University of Nairobi's department of veterinary anatomy and physiology, said: "In future we will quite clearly be able to identify illegal meat on sale firstly to raise awareness among consumers about the problem, and then in future as a law-enforcement tool to prosecute those responsible. Other methods have detected bush meat but not which species it comes from."
He has been collaborating with the Kenya Wildlife Service to find a quick and easy way to curb illegal sales threatening the country's wild animal populations. His technology is based on a molecular marker technique developed at the University of Western Kentucky to tackle deer poaching.
It uses a stretch of DNA carrying the cytochrome B. Different species of vertebrates carry different versions of the gene, allowing a simple genetic test to differentiate between beef and buffalo meat, for example.
The illegal bushmeat trade is seen as the biggest threat to Kenya's wild animals. Populations have declined by 60 per cent during the past two decades, according to the country's national animal censuses. A 2004 study by the Born Free Foundation found that of 202 samples taken from Nairobi butchers' shops, about 25 per cent of meat was purely derived from game species. A further 19 per cent was a mixture of bushmeat and domestic species.
Will Travers, chief executive of the Born Free Foundation, welcomed the research.
"I can see the day when we have a field testing kit that would allow us to test suspect meat products and determine immediately whether it was from a domestic species or a game species," he said.
Suspect meat is sold in the wooden shacks of the city's slums, where electricity is rare. Patrick Gachuhi, of Bamach High-Tech Butchery close to Dagoretti slum, said he had his own method of quality assurance. "We use an abattoir where a little of the skin is left on so that we know it is from a cow," he said.