Donkey skin trade poses serious risk to international biosecurity

Donkeys are transported long distances in trucks to slaughter

The report Biosecurity Risks and Implications for Human & Animal Health on a Global Scale contains the findings of donkey skin testing conducted by The Donkey Sanctuary and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya (ILRI). This testing identified multiple specimens contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and African horse sickness (AHS). In the case of S.aureus contaminated skins, 44 of 108 tested were found to be carrying the drug-resistant MRSA variant, and three of the positive samples were carrying the PVL-toxin – known to cause invasive necrotising diseases in humans.

Although there hasn’t been any official data on the status of donkey skin imports in Vietnam, through numerous reports and investigations from global transporters and animal welfare organizations, it can be seen that Vietnam is currently one of the destinations for donkey skin consumption and an intermediary point to bring donkey skin to the largest market, China.

A map of donkey skin importers and the top ten exporters of donkey skin

Analysis of the Panjiva shipping database identified 1,600 consignments of 41020, valued at US$95 million, destined for China, Hong Kong (China), Thailand, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam between February 2017 and February 2022. While the lack of specificity of the 410120 code makes it impossible to know precisely what was in each of the consignments, the majority were either listed as donkey or equine skins or were shipped by known donkey skin exporters and received by known donkey skin importers. This analysis has revealed that donkey skins may be being sourced and shipped from a much more diverse range of countries than we had previously realized. A similar analysis of the Tradeatlas and Volza shipping databases also found 97 consignments of 410120 destined for China between January 2015 and February 2022, in addition to 184 for Hong Kong (China) and 50 to Vietnam.

While we now know far more about how the trade operates, much is still to be discovered. Our investigations have thrown light on its mechanics, but there is still a huge gap between the known numbers of donkeys slaughtered for the trade annually, and the numbers recorded in shipments. There is also no explicable reason for the huge variation in average values for the consignments going to China and those to Vietnam and Hong Kong (China).

Therefore, the Vietnamese government needs to have strict regulations related to donkey skin products and propagate information about the risks when using donkey skin. This will greatly support efforts to eliminate the smuggling and illegal use of donkey skins in Vietnam.

The demand for donkey skins is driven by the production of ejiao, a traditional Chinese remedy believed by some to have medicinal properties. The huge numbers of donkeys involved, the indiscriminate and often unhygienic slaughter, including of those that are sick, the disparate way skins are shipped and transported, and the global nature of the trade, all add up to the high risk posed by skins intended for ejiao production that are contaminated with disease-causing agents.

In addition to the immediate health risk to the people and equines exposed to these skins, the biosecurity implications for the destination countries are considerable. Diseases that are endemic in source countries may not be present at all in transit or destination countries, leading to potential outbreaks of diseases in local, naïve equine populations.

Worryingly, the donkey skin trade currently operates without adequate veterinary and biosecurity protocols. The unregulated and clandestine nature of much of the trade also means that shipments are often impossible to track, and contaminated skins therefore unable to be traced.

Transport vehicles being prepared for loading donkeys, Northern Nigeria

Poor and unsanitary slaughtering conditions are a key contributor to the trade’s biosecurity hazards, particularly in cases where large groups of animals from different populations are brought together. The majority of the trade relies on illegal backyard slaughtering, which increases the risk of donkey skins being contaminated by disturbed soil or other infectious agents. Where multiple species are slaughtered at the same location there is a further risk of cross contamination.

However, even skins processed in licenced slaughterhouses constitute a biosecurity risk. All of the contaminated skin samples identified by The Donkey Sanctuary originated in a licensed slaughterhouse in Kenya. In the same month as the samples were collected, consignments of skins were collected from this location and shipped to a destination in China.

The findings of the report were presented at the African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources Pan-African Donkey Conference in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, on the 1–2 December 2022.

S. aureus has the ability to survive long periods of transit on poorly preserved skins, meaning that it can infect humans and animals at the point of slaughter as well as during transit and on delivery in the destination country. AHS can be carried by vector insects (Cullicoides midge), who may have the potential to survive long journeys in shipping containers and infect new equine hosts on arrival.

The Donkey Sanctuary is calling on the governments of China, Hong Kong (China), Vietnam and Thailand to immediately stop the import of donkey skins, and on the national governments of exporting countries to take immediate steps to stop the trade in donkey skins.