Images of empty streets, stores and factories in China, and quarantined cruise ships and vacant airports around the world— all the result of the coronavirus outbreak — look like scenes from a sci-fi thriller where humanity struggles to battle an unknown deadly pathogen. But in the current real-life situation, it is becoming increasingly clear that the deadly outbreak began — or was aided in its transmission in a seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan.
While Chinese authorities have temporarily shutdown all wildlife markets, scientists and environmental activists are calling for the permanent closure of wildlife markets to avoid the future spread of zoonotic pathogens, those that are transmitted from animals to humans. Will China take this historic opportunity to permanently shut down the wildlife trade to reduce the likelihood of future outbreaks?
Early research suggests the coronavirus could have spread from bats to pangolins to humans. A study reported in the journal Nature conducted by Chinese scientists at the South China Agricultural University, sequenced the DNA of the coronavirus in pangolins and found that it is 99% similar to the coronavirus found in humans. The connection is yet to be confirmed – other suspects include snakes -- but it is another example of a deadly pathogen jumping from wildlife to humans often as a result of consuming wildlife.
Pangolins are protected yet they are the most widely traded wildlife species in the world. They are either wild-caught or raised for food and sold in Asian wildlife markets. The scales of this small, anteater-like mammal contain keratin which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. According to faunalytics.org it is estimated that one million pangolins have been traded in the last decade and the sale of this threatened species is illegal in many jurisdictions.
In 2003, the source of SARS was traced to bats and the consumption of palm civets in China. The civet is a mammal from the mongoose family, commonly sold in wildlife markets in Asia. During the SARS outbreak, Chinese authorities issued a temporary ban on these markets but it was lifted once the danger had passed.
People in many Asian cultures traditionally consume types of food to which Western palates and sensibilities are unaccustomed. So called, “wet” markets sell both domesticated animals such as chickens and dogs, and wild animals such as snakes, ostriches, civets, porcupines and wolf pups. These live animals are kept in cages in crowded unsanitary conditions in open air markets waiting to be sold and slaughtered on site. Scientists and health experts say the conditions in these markets are a toxic mixing bowl of potential pathogens and disease.
Photo: A puppy being sold for food in an Asian market. Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media.
There is a huge network of legal and illegal wildlife trafficking designed to supply the demand for both food and traditional medicines in Asia. This market represents a huge threat to global biodiversity and is the source of untold suffering for millions of animals. It is one part of the global illegal wildlife trade thought to be worth at least $10 billion, although estimates are difficult to make given the illicit nature of the trade. While there is justifiably significant focus on the slaughter of charismatic species such as elephants for ivory and rhinos for their horns, the problem affects millions of animals -- one in five global vertebrate species are subject to wildlife trading. And this is taking a deadly toll on global biodiversity. According to a study published in the journal Science, the global illegal wildlife trade currently threatens 8,775 species of vertebrates with extinction.
So, what can be done? Experts at Oxford University say the key question is, “How can consumer behaviour be changed in order to reduce trade in illegal wildlife products?”
China has a historic opportunity to address health, environmental, biodiversity and animal welfare issues simultaneously. The challenge of providing food for 1.4 billion people is a mammoth and complex task. The country is already struggling with the impact of African Swine Fever that has led to the killing of hundreds of millions of pigs and the environmental damage of its rapidly growing factory farm system. Food safety is paramount for Chinese consumers especially given past food safety incidents such as the tainted milk scandal in 2008.
A permanent shutdown of wildlife markets would help stop one of the sources of future global health threats from zoonotic pathogens and improve food safety. And looking to the future, incentives to expand the traditional consumption of plant-based protein and further investments in new plant-based and cultivated meat and seafood would help meet the demand for food and reduce the carbon footprint of the Chinese food and agriculture system.
We can only hope it doesn’t take yet another global health crisis to make the necessary change happen.