China virus outbreak revives calls to stop wildlife trade

outbreak of a new virus linked to a wildlife market in central China is prompting renewed calls for enforcement of laws against tre in and consumption of exotic species.

It's also raising questions about how it could happen again after lessons learned from 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which was traced to consumption of wild animals in sourn city of Guangzhou.

Demand for wild animals in Asia, especially China, is hastening extinction of many species, on top of posing a perennial health threat that authorities have failed to fully dress despite growing risks of a global pandemic.

In response to crisis that has been centered in big industrial city of Wuhan, China’s Agriculture Ministry issued an order earlier this week ordering tightened controls on tre in wildlife.

New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, meanwhile, appealed for an end to wildlife markets everywhere, t just in China.

Zootic diseases, or those contracted by humans that originated in or species, account for a large share of human infectious illnesses. t all of m come from wildlife tre: rabies is endemic across many species and one of biggest causes of death in developing world. But mixing species of wild animals increases risk of diseases mutating and growing more virulent as y spre in unregulated markets, experts say.

emergence of such diseases is a “numbers game,” said Christian Walzer, executive director of Wildlife Conservation Society's health program.

“If se markets persist, and human consumption of illegal and unregulated wildlife persists, n public will continue to face heightened risks from emerging new viruses, potentially more lethal and source of future pandemic spre,” he said. “se are perfect laboratories for creating opportunities for se viruses to emerge."

order issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, dated Jan. 21, banned all shipments of wild animals out of Wuhan. It also called for stepped up inspections and for raising public awareness about risks of eating m.

Researchers have t yet anunced a definitive source for this latest outbreak, which like many or viruses has genetic markers found in multiple species.

But one of first measures taken by Wuhan authorities was to close down Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where 41 of first cases originated.

“That’s big black box right w,” said Jon Epstein, an epidemiologist with Ecohealth Alliance.

He was in China during SARS outbreak and helped ongoing global effort over nearly two deces to find wild source of that virus, which sickened more than 8,000 and killed less than 800. SARS has been linked to various animals, including bats and cat-like masked palm civet.

While researchers have t yet anunced a definitive source for latest outbreak, it like many or viruses has genetic markers found in multiple species.

Bats are kwn to harbor coronaviruses, but scientists have yet to fully understand new virus and how it leapt from animals to people.

Epstein said researchers suspect but haven’t proven that Wuhan virus came from bats. Before it infected humans, it likely first jumped to an as yet unidentified mammal.

“re’s plausible evidence to support snakes being involved with this virus,” Epstein said, referring to recent media speculation criticized by a

crackdown on wildlife trafficking and sales persisted only about six months after SARS outbreak fed in mid-2003, Walzer said.

“ solution is simple,” he said. “In sense that we kw where problem is.”

In cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, re’s little sign of markets catering to gourmands seeking “ye wei,” or “wild flavors.”

But in provincial cities and in some parts of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and or Souast Asian countries, those determined to eat such exotic dishes can find all sorts of creatures for sale: pangolins, bgers, salamanders, scorpions, hedgehogs and even wolf puppies.

A photo of a menu list from a vendor in Wuhan market called “Wild Game Livestock for Masses,” circulated online, showed more than 110 species for sale.

Court records show that authorities in Hubei, province where Wuhan is located, investigated 250 cases related to wildlife trafficking and poaching in 2019 alone. According to local media reports, since 2018 an estimated 16,000 wild animals were hunted in province of more than 60 million people.

Hubei is home to Shenngjia, a UNESCO World Herit nature reserve that is a habitat of great biodiversity with many rare species including clouded leopard, golden snub-sed monkey and Chinese giant salamander.

Video foot filmed by a conservation activist in eastern China’s Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, which also have a long trition of consuming wild species, showed many wild species laid out for inspection in a market.

In most cases, vendors are registered to sell some unprotected species, usually a limited amount of just a few, such as hares, wild boar and muntjac, a kind of tiny deer.

But enforcement is “t that strict,” said Tian Jiang Ming of Anti-Poaching Squ, a group of volunteers who visit markets are report on illegal wildlife sales. illegal offerings tend to be kept hidden away in back freezers, he said.

“ vendors are selling illegally poached animals with se licenses in hand," he told Associated Press.

Only in 2014 did China criminalize consumption of protected species with a law specifying a maximum three-year jail term. But it also has allowed commercial farming of certain species, including tigers — a practice that conservation vocates say encours illicit trafficking in protected species.

It's difficult to secure prosecution since it's hard to prove animals have been poached, Tian Jiang Ming said.

“ forestry department needs to prove illegal poaching by sellers but y don’t have investigative resources to find m," he said.