VOA慢速英语2013 Health and Environmental Concerns as Ugandans Start to Eat Primates

 

Health and Environmental Concerns as Ugandans Start to Eat Primates¹

 

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.

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.

Disease experts are calling attention to the danger. So are environmental groups, because chimps³ are endangered. Lily Ajarova is the director of a chimp² refuge in Uganda. She says eating primates is not a traditional custom in Uganda but it is in other countries in Africa.

"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."

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

"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.'"

She points out that in traditional Ugandan culture, primates are protected as totem animals, or animals representing a clan⁴.

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

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.

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

"In the 2007 Bundibugyo outbreak, they confirmed to us that they eat these primates. People who have slaughtered⁵ sick chimpanzees or gorillas⁶ 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."

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.

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. 

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Bob Doughty⁷.

1 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。

2 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

3 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

4 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

5 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。