Examining the international bushmeat traffic in Belgium: A threat to conservation and public health.

"Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest in this project."

"This study was carried out on behalf of the 10.13039/501100011091Belgian Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment who fully funded the research on the illegal importation of meat, including bushmeat, seized at Zaventem Airport between 2017 and 2018. We are grateful to the team working at Brussels Zaventem airport for their support and all the border control officers who participated in the data collection. We received support from the 10.13039/501100005627Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Liège where sample collection took place. The B2M staff at Laboratoire Evolution & Diversité Biologique provided helpful support regarding the genetic lab work. We acknowledge the data contribution provided by Dr. Kathy Wood/Tengwood Organization to enable comparison of the trade across European ports. We thank Dr. Charles Caraguel for his support in the statistical analysis, Cidalia Gomes for her help with the genetic assignment of samples and Maud Istasse (from the Belgian Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment) for her continuous support of the project. PG and DP received support from FCT IC&DT 02/SAICT/2017—n° 032130 (BUSHRISK). Anne-Lise Chaber: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Georgia Kate Moloney: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Veronique Renault: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Sandrella Morrison-Lanjouw: Writing – review & editing. Mutien Garigliany: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Lucette Flandroy: Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Daniel Pires: Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Valeria Busoni: Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing. Claude Saegerman: Methodology, Investigation, Validation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing – review & editing. Philippe Gaubert: Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing."