There are reports on social media that grey monitor lizard meat can cure cancer. How true is this? Can monitor lizard meat cure cancer, which humanity has not yet found a cure for?


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Today, 64 species of reptiles live in Uzbekistan. One of them is the gray monitor lizard. According to herpetologist and junior researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan Timur Abduraupov.
" In recent years, humans have been penetrating into the habitats of reptiles. Construction development, land appropriation, unfounded fear of monitor lizards, snakes and lizards, catching and eating them as medicine for various diseases have caused the disappearance of many species of reptiles in the country, including the gray monitor lizard and the reason for including them in the international "Red Book" of Uzbekistan.
"For example, in the 1940-80s of the last century, monitor lizards were hunted en masse, various shoes, belts, women's and men's bags were made from their skins.
The role of reptiles and amphibians is enormous and they do more good than harm. Reptiles occupy an important place in the general food chain of the desert-steppe region, and monitor lizards and snakes, biological enemies of rodents, prevent the growth of natural foci of cholera. Rodents are the carriers of cholera, the scientist notes.
Timur Abduraupov says that monitor lizards are the smartest among reptiles. They recognize a person they have seen once by their face next time. They also have their own territory, which can be up to 1,500 hectares. A female monitor lizard can live on this territory, but she does not allow another male monitor lizard into her territory.
"Males will fight each other if it is a question of territory. But in a fight, opponents do not bite each other, they hit each other, simply knock each other down. At the same time, they never become infected with infectious diseases. For this reason, the monitor lizard is more useful than cats in exterminating rodents that carry cholera,” he says.
Abduraurov also debunks another stereotype that is common among the local population. People believe that monitor lizards bite sheep and suck goats, causing the animals to die. This is a misconception.
“When it sees sheep and goats in an area where monitor lizards live, the animal presses itself to the ground. But when the herd begins to walk over it, the monitor lizard, in pain, grabs either the sheep’s leg or the goats’ hanging udder to protect itself. Seeing this, the shepherds think that the monitor lizard is sucking goats. That is why it is called “goat sucker.” In fact, the monitor lizard does not feed on milk at all, but eats rodents, poisonous snakes, and small birds,” the scientist debunks the myth.
The female monitor lizard lays from 6 to 38 eggs, but unfortunately, only 30% of them do not hatch. Small monitor lizards mainly feed on grasshoppers and scorpions, but they have many enemies. Most of them are food for wild predatory animals and birds. Only 5% to 10% reach sexual maturity in 3 years. For this reason, despite being included in the Red Book more than 30 years ago, their number has halved.

Today, due to climate change and human persecution, they are completely extinct in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, on the Ustyurt Plain. It was assumed that they completely disappeared in the Fergana Valley, but recently individual specimens were found there. Currently, monitor lizards are found in the Jizzakh, Fergana, Namangan, Navoi, Surkhandarya, and Khorezm regions. However, their numbers are declining very quickly. Monitor lizards cannot be bred in zoos. Because they experience stress in captivity. No zoo in the world has yet succeeded in breeding gray monitor lizards. If strict conservation measures are not taken, in the coming decades, future generations will see monitor lizards and most snake species only in books, the scientist emphasized.
In Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, there is a belief that the meat of monitor lizards and the common steppe snake, which is sold on the black market under the name "kulvor", can be a cure for cancer. However, there are no proven facts about this in scientific medicine.
"When their meat was examined at the Institute of Zoology, the composition was almost no different from ordinary chicken meat. But since the main food of reptiles is rodents, the amino acids in their meat are different. A person who eats poultry, beef, sheep and goat meat, suddenly, on the advice of doctors, eats monitor lizard or snake meat, the body begins to fight against the foreign tissues and cells that have entered. The person's temperature rises. Some doctors say that "if a person eats monitor lizard or snake meat and feels hot, then the meat eaten by the patient has a positive effect on him." But the relief lasts only a few hours, and then the patient's condition worsens. Because the process of metastasis in cancer is enhanced. In practice, there is not a single unambiguous fact that a person has been cured by eating monitor lizards or snake meat," says Timur Abduraupov.
In addition, reptile meat is prohibited and unsuitable for consumption in accordance with Islamic canons. However, despite this, in Uzbekistan, where 90% of the population professes Islam, the extermination of monitor lizards and the snake "kulvor" continues.
Khusniddin Tursunzade, Imam-Khatib of the Khodjamberdiboy Mosque in Fergana City, Fergana Region, says that drinking soup made from monitor lizards, snakes, hedgehogs and frogs is not allowed in Islam. Medicine that gives strength and cures should be sought among halal things. He cites statements from reliable Muslim sources confirming this.
“Most of our sources on fiqh say that it is forbidden to eat various insects and reptiles living above and below the ground, as well as monitor lizards, snakes and hedgehogs. The reason is that Allah has made pure things permissible and forbidden things that are disgusting to human nature,” the Imam-Khatib said.
“It is stated in the book Bahrur Raiq: Hasan ibn Ali, may Allah have mercy on him, said: ‘If a skilled physician says that he will cure a disease, is it permissible to eat snakes and hedgehogs or take medicine containing snakes?’ They asked. He replied: ‘No, that will not be halal,’” he said.


"If a person who regularly eats poultry, cattle, sheep and goats, suddenly eats the meat of a gray monitor lizard on the advice of tabibs, he begins to fight other tissues and cells of the meat that have entered the body, and the person's temperature rises. In practice, there is not a single fact that a person has been cured by eating monitor lizard meat," says the head of the department of the Republican Specialized Scientific and Practical Medical Center of Oncology and Radiology, candidate of medical sciences, oncologist of the highest category Olim Imamov.
For information: According to the appendix to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 649 dated December 7, 2023, the damage caused to the animal world as a result of the destruction of the gray monitor lizard is 34 million soums. A.K., a citizen living in the Balkhiyak mahalla of the Kashkadarya region, who does not have the information we have provided, was fined 51,480,000 soums for illegal hunting and hiding 9 gray monitor lizards in his house. There are many such examples.
Preservation of the grey monitor lizard is not only a moral duty of man, but also a necessity for preserving the biodiversity of Uzbekistan and sustainable development of the ecosystem. Only by combining the efforts of scientists, ecologists, authorities and the population, we can ensure the survival of this amazing species and pass it on to future generations.
Factchecker.uz conclusion: false