A review of zoonotic infection risks associated with the wild meat trade in Malaysia.

The overhunting of wildlife for food and commercial gain presents a major threat to biodiversity in tropical forests and poses health risks to humans from contact with wild animals. Using a recent survey of wildlife offered at wild meat markets in Malaysia as a basis, we review the literature to determine the potential zoonotic infection risks from hunting, butchering and consuming the species offered. We also determine which taxa potentially host the highest number of pathogens and discuss the significant disease risks from traded wildlife, considering how cultural practices influence zoonotic transmission. We identify 51 zoonotic pathogens (16 viruses, 19 bacteria and 16 parasites) potentially hosted by wildlife and describe the human health risks. The Suidae and the Cervidae families potentially host the highest number of pathogens. We conclude that there are substantial gaps in our knowledge of zoonotic pathogens and recommend performing microbial food safety risk assessments to assess the hazards of wild meat consumption. Overall, there may be considerable zoonotic risks to people involved in the hunting, butchering or consumption of wild meat in Southeast Asia, and these should be considered in public health strategies

Diversity of the envelope glycoprotein among human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates of clade E, from Asia and Africa

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates of clade E, known to be largely responsible for the fulminating epidemic in Southeast Asia, have been derived exclusively from Asia and Africa. Here we provide full or partial sequences of the envelope glycoprotein gene from 13 additional clade E isolates from Asia representing patients in both early and late stages of disease. More extensive comparison of isolates within clade E by geographic locale, stage of disease, and year of isolation is now possible. The genetic diversity of clade E isolates from Asia, particularly among those derived from early-stage patients, is restricted compared with African isolates (mean interisolate distances in gp120, 5.4 and 20.2%, respectively). However, patients hospitalized with AIDS-related illnesses in Thailand harbored clade E isolates exhibiting broader interisolate diversity and with highly heterogeneous third hypervariable loop sequences. An additional pair of cysteine residues, predicting a novel disulfide bridge and present in 80% of clade E isolates from Asia, was uniformly absent from six African isolates. Clade E isolates in Thailand from early-stage subjects continue to be genetically similar to potential vaccine prototype strains, providing a favorable environment for the evaluation of genotype E candidate vaccines. However, evidence of increasing interisolate diversity is appearing among late-stage patients in Asia. This diversification of the clade E virus, if sustained, may impact preventive vaccine development strategies