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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 15 February 2020
Virus renews safety concerns about slaughtering wild animals

By SAM McNEIL and 16,000 breeding sites have
CANDICE CHOI been cordoned off. It’s not
Associated Press clear how the measures
BEIJING (AP) — China will play out over time. Be-
cracked down on the sale fore the outbreak began, it
of exotic species after an was legal in China to sell 54
outbreak of a new virus species like pangolins and
in 2002 was linked to mar- civets — as long as they
kets selling live animals. The were raised on farms .
germ turned out to be a That made it difficult to
coronavirus that caused distinguish between legal
SARS. and illegal wildlife in wet
The ban was later lifted, markets, and enforce-
and the animals reap- ment was lax, said Jinfeng
peared. Now another Zhou of China Biodiversity,
coronavirus is spreading Conservation and Green
through China, so far killing Development Foundation,
1,380 people and sickening an environmental group
more than 64,000 — eight based in Beijing.
times the number sickened He pointed to a widely
by SARS. shared image of a Wuhan
The suspected origin? The market advertisement list-
same type of market. ing 72 species, including
With more than 60 million peacocks and bullfrogs, as
people under lockdown proof that the trade is too
in more than a dozen Chi- lucrative to be stopped
nese cities, the new out- In this Jan. 9, 2020, file photo provided by the Anti-Poaching Special Squad, police look at items by anything less than a to-
break is prompting calls to seized from store suspected of trafficking wildlife in Guangde city in central China's Anhui Province. tal ban on all wildlife. “The
Associated Press
permanently ban the sale profit is huge ... like drugs,”
of wildlife, which many say evolved from a virus that culate in wild animals. the first is SARS, this time is Jinfeng said.
is being fueled by a limited infected cattle. The Wuhan market was Wuhan. We don’t want a Others disagree, arguing
group of wealthy people Scientists have not yet de- also like many other “wet third time,” Lai Xinping, a that banning the wildlife
who consider the animals termined exactly how the markets” in Asia and else- project cost assessor, said trade is not a realistic way
delicacies. The spreading new coronavirus first in- where, where animals are by phone from her home in to reduce risk, especially in
illness also serves as a grim fected people. Evidence tied up or stacked in cages. Sichuan. poorer regions of the world
reminder that how animals suggests it originated in Activists say it’s difficult to “We hate them too, and where it can be an impor-
are handled anywhere bats, which infected an- distinguish between those we are blamed,” said Tao tant food source.
can endanger people ev- other animal that spread that were legally farmed Yiwei, a 36-year-old home- They say improved moni-
erywhere. it to people at a market and those that may have maker. She is among those toring, regulation or pub-
“There’s a vast number of in the southeastern city of been illegally hunted. The who want the temporary lic education may better
viruses in the animal world Wuhan. The now-shuttered animals are often killed on ban on wildlife, enacted control the problem. When
that have not spread to Huanan Seafood Whole- site to ensure freshness. The to contain the current out- wildlife is farmed, for ex-
humans, and have the po- sale Market advertised messy mix raises the tiny break, to be permanent. ample, it allows for greater
tential to do so,” said Rob- dozens of species such as odds that a new virus will There are signs the Chinese surveillance and testing for
ert Webster, an expert on giant salamanders, baby jump to people handling government may make viruses, said Daszak of Eco-
influenza viruses at St. Jude crocodiles and raccoon the animals and start to more lasting changes to Health Alliance.
Children’s Research Hospi- dogs that were often re- spread, experts say. how exotic species are Even if China successfully
tal in Memphis, Tennessee. ferred to as wildlife, even “You’ve got live animals, so raised and sold. regulates or bans it, the
SARS and the current out- when they were farmed. there’s feces everywhere. This month, Chinese leader wildlife trade is likely to
break of COVID-19 are not Of the 33 samples from the There’s blood because of Xi Jinping said the country continue elsewhere. Re-
the only diseases in people Wuhan market that tested people chopping them should “resolutely outlaw cent visits to wet markets in
traced back to animals. positive for the coronavirus, up,” said Peter Daszak, and harshly crack down” the island of Sulawesi in In-
The killing and sale of what officials say 31 were from president of EcoHealth on the illegal wildlife trade donesia and in the coastal
is known as bushmeat in the area where wildlife Alliance, which works to because of the public city of Doula in Cameroon
Africa is thought to be a booths were concentrat- protect wildlife and public health risks it poses. revealed similar conditions
source for Ebola. ed. Compared with long health from emerging dis- In the eastern province to wet markets in China.
Bird flu likely came from domesticated livestock eases. of Anhui, officials sealed Vendors were slaughtering
chickens at a market in like chickens and pigs, re- China’s taste for wildlife is farms breeding species like and grilling bats, dogs, rats,
Hong Kong in 1997. Mea- searchers say less is known relatively new, prompted badgers and bamboo rats. crocodiles and snakes, and
sles is believed to have about the viruses that cir- by the country’s economic In the port city of Tianjin, sanitary measures were
growth, said Peter Li, who authorities say their crack- scant.
studies Chinese politics at down on the sale of wildlife Ongoing destruction of spe-
the University of Houston. caught six traders, includ- cies’ habitats will likely bring
But with the outbreak up- ing three who were selling people into closer contact
ending lives across the pythons and parrots. with animals and their vi-
country, many on Chinese All told, officials say about ruses, said Raina Plowright,
social media are express- 1.5 million markets and a University of Montana re-
ing frustration that rich online operators nation- searcher who studies how
people’s appetite for wild wide have been inspected diseases spread from wild-
animals is again endanger- since the outbreak began. life to people.
ing everyone else. About 3,700 have been “We are inevitably going to
“This is the second time … shut down, and around be exposed,” she said.q