Airport Officials Seize Nearly Nine Pounds of Exotic ‘Mystery Meat’

One would think that the zoonotic origins of the COVID-19 virus and the consequential pandemic would be enough to convince everyone that consuming wild and exotic animals isn’t a good idea. But, apparently, some people simply will not be deterred.

Such was the case when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport seized nearly nine pounds of unidentifiable wild animal meat from a passenger flying in from Ghana on January 3.

The unnamed passenger, a returning U.S. citizen, landed in Newark and declared the “bushmeat” on his customs form. Bushmeat is a catchall phrase referring to the meat of wild animals—in Africa, typically consisting of flesh from primates, bats, civets and native rodents—which can spread disease, CBP said.

According to the New York Post, CBP agriculture specialists red-flagged the pieces of browned carcass and, when staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) realized they came from wild animals, the mystery meat was ordered to be destroyed.

CBP emphasized that cases of animal diseases that transfer to humans, such as the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, “adversely affect public health, cause global trade halts and destabilize the economy and our nation’s food supply.”

“CBP Agriculture Specialists made critical interceptions of these prohibited animal products and stopped them from entering the United States before they could potentially cause grave damage to our agricultural and economic vitality,” Troy Miller, the New York field office of the CBP’s director of field operations, said in a statement.

Upon inspection, it wasn’t immediately clear what animal(s) the transported body parts had once belonged to. The passenger himself faced no repercussions because he had declared his haul as required when passing through customs checks.

There was also no indication as to whether the CDC would be keeping an eye on this man to ensure that he doesn’t become the next Patient Zero.