Corona-breeding sites: The billion-dollar business with the wild animal trade

The Corona-pandemic fuelled the criticism of the wild animal trade, as this plays pathogens a role in the spread of disease. Scientists are demanding more audibly, the strict Monitoring.

Actually is with the Corona-pandemic, the global wildlife trade has shifted hugely in the focus. Demands for a permanent, definitive prohibition to be loud suddenly, from the science in a number, as you would have guessed beforehand hardly. Particularly the animal markets are in the focus not only in Asia but also in India, Africa, and Latin America. They are considered as breeding grounds for new viruses, as they offer ideal conditions for Übersprünge from one type to the other: Here, legally and illegally imported, hunted and bred animals in the wild meet – types that would be encountered in nature, to the people included.

“left, and The hygienic conditions in such markets are to be desired. The animals are stacked in tiny cages, some are hurt, all stressed out, and divorce accordingly“, explains the biologist Stefan Cheers from the Loewe-centre for Translational biodiversity genomics in Frankfurt am Main. That is, all the roommate that is home to a species naturally, so viruses, bacteria and parasites, to get to such places is the Chance to conquer a new host: because animals can spread it via saliva, blood and feces.

HIV and Ebola are in connection with markets

experts estimate that up to three-quarters of all new infectious diseases have their origin in the animal Kingdom – even if the paths of the excitation can not be settled in their new owners always, without a doubt. In connection with wild animal markets, for example, HIV, the Ebola virus, Sars-CoV-1 and also the current pandemic, pathogen, Sars-CoV-2. The origin of suspect scientists in bats, as these carriers are of a closely related Virus. Another team of experts, WHO landed a few days ago, in Wuhan, in order to try to reconstruct the way of Sars-CoV-2.

A worker is disinfected on the wild animal market in Guangzhou cages with the larvae scooters. : Image: dpa

at the beginning of the pandemic in Asia, common Pangolin (Pangolin) under suspicion to have as an intermediate host acts: In the case of animals that had been smuggled from Malaysia to China, had Sars-CoV-2 similar to the corona virus detected. A study of the non-profit Eco Health Alliance in New York, he thinks, to have this hypothesis is now refuted. At the same time shows that this is the case, the risks of the wildlife trade in the spread of pathogens in the games: In more than 300 Pangolinen, the goods between 2009 and 2019 in Malaysia seized, the researchers found no corona virus. This tends to suggest that Pangolins are likely to be incidental hosts infected during transportation, says the first author, Jimmy Lee.

field rats are infected during their transportation with corona virus: The rodents are eaten in Vietnam, like in the rice fields and caught in markets or sold in Restaurants. According to a study, the share increased in those rats that were tested positive for various coronaviruses, along the chain to delivery to the Restaurants, significantly. The way to “a maximum risk for the end-user point,” the authors write in the Online journal “Plos One”.

closure is “no, there is no realistic solution”

The discussions around the wild animal trade are new, the public health risks already known for decades: During the Sars outbreak in 2003 the Chinese government to ban the wild animal trade, however, flourished in the trade after the crisis. At the end of February of 2020, China will ban the illegal trade and consumption of wild animals as a food again, the ban could be permanent: “There are three laws have been revised, and is currently putting the finishing touches on the implementation,” says the biologist, Aili Kang, program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in China.

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