Risk assessment and preventive health behaviours toward COVID-19 amongst bushmeat handlers in Nigerian wildlife markets: Drivers and One Health challenge

Over 70% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic and 72% of them have wildlife reservoirs with consequent global health impacts. Both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 emerged certainly through wildlife market routes. We assessed wildlife handlers’ zoonotic risk perceptions and preventive health behaviour measures toward COVID-19 during pandemic waves, and its drivers at wildlife markets using Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs. A cross-sectional study was conducted at purposively selected wildlife markets in Nigeria between November 2020 and October 2021. Descriptive, univariate, and multivariable logistic regressions analyses were performed at 95% confidence interval. Of the 600 targeted handlers in 97 wildlife markets, 97.2% (n = 583) participated. Consumers were the majority (65.3%), followed by hunters (18.4) and vendors (16.3%). Only 10.3% hunters, 24.3% vendors and 21.0% consumers associated COVID-19 with high zoonotic risk. Also, only few handlers practiced social/physical distancing at markets. Avoidance of handshaking or hugging and vaccination was significantly (p = 0.001) practiced by few handlers as preventive health behaviours at the markets. All the socio-demographic variables were significantly (p<0.05) associated with their knowledge, risk perceptions, and practice of preventive health behaviours toward COVID-19 at univariate analysis. Poor markets sanitation, hygiene, and biosecurity (OR=3.35, 95% CI: 2.33, 4.82); and poor butchering practices and exchange of wildlife species between shops [(OR=1.87; 95% CI: 1.34, 2.60) and (OR=2.03; 95% CI: 1.43, 2.88), respectively] were more likely to significantly influence COVID-19 emergence and spread at the markets. To tackle the highlighted gaps, collaborations between the public health, anthropologists, and veterinary and wildlife authorities through the One Health approach are advocated to intensify awareness and health education programmes that will improve perceptions and behaviours toward the disease and other emerging diseases control and prevention.