How wildlife trade is linked to COVID-19?

The world is badly hit by the Covid-19. When scientists started to trace the origin, they found it was the food market in Wuhan. 27 out of the first 41 patients had been here. The evidence wasn\’t conclusive, but Chinese officials quickly shut down the market. That scene has happened before at the same place. In 2002, a coronavirus had emerged at a very similar market in Southern China which eventually spread to 29 countries and killed nearly 800 people. Now, 18 years later this Coronavirus has spread all across the world and has already killed many.

How wildlife trade is linked to COVID-19?

A lot of viruses that make us sick originates in animals like flu originates in birds and pigs, HIV in Chimpanzee, Ebola originates in Bats, and in the case of the Covid-19, there\’s some evidence that it came from a bat to a pangolin before infecting a human.

Viruses are very good at jumping from one species to another. But, it requires all the hosts to encounter each other at some point. That\’s where the Wuhan market comes in. It\’s a wet market, a kind of place where live animals are slaughtered and sold for consumption. The cages are stacked one over another. Animals at the bottom are often soaked with all kinds of liquid like excrement, pus, blood. That\’s exactly how a virus can jump from one species to another. If that animal then comes in contact with or is consumed by humans, the virus could potentially infect them and if the virus then spreads to other humans, it causes an Outbreak.

Wet markets are scattered all over the world but the ones in China are particularly well known because they offer a wide variety of animals including wildlife. The animals are from all over the world and each one has the potential to carry their viruses to the market.

The reason all these animals are in the same market is because of the decision the Chinese government made decades ago

Back in the 1970s, China was falling apart, famine had killed more than 36 million people, and the communist regime which controlled all food production was failing to feed its population. In 1978, on the verge of collapse, the regime gave up control and allowed private farming. While large companies started dominating the production of popular foods like pork and poultry, some smaller farmers started catching and raising wild animals as a way to sustain themselves.

At the very beginning, it was mostly the peasant household. That\’s how wildlife farming started to get off the ground and since it started to sustain and feed people, the Chinese government-backed it. The government needed to encourage people to make a living through whatever productive activities they can find themselves-if you lift yourself out of poverty, no matter what you are doing, that\’s okay.

But then in 1988, the government made the decision that changed the shape of wildlife trade in China. They enacted the Wildlife Protection Law which designated animals as resources owned by the state and also, it protected people engaged in the utilization of wildlife resources. That\’s one of the most devastating problems of the law because if you designate the wildlife as natural resources that means it\’s something you can use for human benefit.

The law also encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife and with that, an industry was born \’Wildlife Farming Industry\’. Small farms were turned into industries. A bigger population means greater chances that a sick animal can spread the disease. Farmers were also raising a wide variety of animals which meant more viruses on the farms and then the animals were funneled into the markets for profit. While this legal wildlife farming industry started booming, it simultaneously provided cover for illegal wildlife trade. Endangered animals such as Tiger, Rhinoceros, Pangolins were trafficked in China.

In 2003, the SARS outbreak was traced to the wet market in Guangdong province. Scientists found traces of the virus in the civet cats. Chinese officials quickly shut down the markets and banned wildlife farming. But just a few months after the outbreak the Chinese government declared the 54 species of wildlife animals including civet cats legal to farm again. The wildlife farming industry plays a tiny role in China\’s gigantic GDP but the industry has enormous lobbying capabilities. It\’s because of this influence the Chinese government has allowed these markets to grow over the years.

In 2016, the Government sanctioned the farming of seven endangered species like tigers, pangolins. The industry uses clever marketing tactics and has been promoting these wildlife animals as tonic products as bodybuilding, sex-enhancing, disease-fighting, etc. None of the claims can hold water. The majority in China do not eat wildlife animals. Those people who consume these animals are the rich and the powerful-a small minority. It\’s this minority Chinese government chose to favor over the safety of the rest of its population.

This parochial commercial interest of a small number of wildlife eaters is hijacking China\’s national interest. Soon after the Coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese government shut down the wet markets and temporarily banned wildlife trade. Organizations around the world are urging China to make the ban permanent. Unless there is a complete ban on the wildlife industry, outbreaks like these are bound to happen again.