To Prevent Next Coronavirus, Stop the Wildlife Trade, Conservationists Say

Rachel Nuwer’s article titled, To Prevent Next Coronavirus, Stop the Wildlife Trade, Conservationists Say, reveals that history has proved that wildlife animal trade and slaughtering help viruses and diseases leap from animals to humans. With this fact known to be true, conservationists declare that the future of our public health depends on preventing wildlife animal trading and slaughtering. Conservationists are arguing that this is not a just a “conservation” issue anymore but a public health issue and even national security issue. The Chinese government is currently working on legislation to ban wild animal trading and consumption. The article stresses that live meat markets are the “perfect laboratories” for the creation of new viruses because there is a mixture of new microbes within different species of animals that are also in very close contact with humans. This mixture is also present when the multiple species of live animals are slaughtered on the same chopping block with the same knives. For example, the suspected wild animal market in Wuhan had over seventy species of wildlife sold and slaughtered there. Experts believe China did not learn their lesson from the SARS outbreak in 2003 that was linked to wild animal markets. Some critics argue that wild animal markets are simply the culture of Eastern countries like China. These same critics also say that wild animal consumption in Western countries like America occur as the “norm,” where individuals consume venison, rabbit and birds. The article also points out that answer may be somewhere in the middle by focusing on the hygiene of the markets, which lowers the risk of a new animal virus making the leap to humans. 

This article relates directly to our “Virus in the News” class because it focuses on the current coronavirus and a debate, we had in class a few weeks ago regarding the practice of wild animal markets. Furthermore, the article points out that mankind is not learning from our previous behaviors that have proved to be destructive. Although this belief can be applied to many aspects of our lives, I believe it is important to learn for the epidemic. I would be in favor of the ban of wild animal markets in China and throughout the world. As far as the consumption of wildlife in America I am unaware of live animal meat markets like the ones described in Wuhan China, where deer, rabbits, squirrels, moose, bear, ducks and turkeys are kept alive in a cage then slaughtered once purchased on the same chopping block with the same knives. 

~~ John Sikora

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/health/coronavirus-animals-markets.html