As we are in the middle of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic that started at a wet market in Wuhan, China imposed a strict ban on the consumption and farming of wild animals. The virus is a zoonotic disease: a disease that can jump from one species to another, and can be particularly dangerous to humans because our immune systems don’t yet know how to fight them. It is still unclear which animal transferred the disease (it is believed it originated from bats and was then transmitted to humans via pangolins, the most trafficked mammal in the world), and how it jumped to humans (airborne, consumption etc.). There is no doubt though that we need to end the consumption and trade of wildlife to prevent another outbreak. Back in 2003, during the SARS outbreak, civets were banned and culled after it was discovered they likely transferred the virus to humans. But just before the outbreak of the Coronavirus, business was back to usual and many exotic animals caught in the wild were being sold at markets and restaurants across China and Southeast Asia.

At the fish market in Wuhan where the virus originated in December 2019, a high number of different wild animals (including those born and raised in dubious breeding farms) were kept in small cages and sold for consumption. Snakes, raccoon dogs, bats, porcupines, ducks and deer, to name a few. The danger of an outbreak comes when many exotic animals from different environments are kept in close proximity. On top of that, the markets are being visited by large numbers of people everyday, adding to the risk of the virus jumping to humans. "These animals have their own viruses," said Hong Kong University virologist professor Leo Poon. "These viruses can jump from one species to another species, then that species may become an amplifier, which increases the amount of virus in the wet market substantially." Coronaviruses use a surface glycoprotein (a protein with sugars attached) called the spike (S) protein to bind to host cells. This protein gives the virus a crownlike appearance, giving the name “corona”. The part of the protein that does the actual binding, called the S1 subunit, can vary considerably, allowing the virus to bind to many different mammalian host species.

This photo shows 4,000 dead, defrosting pangolins, weighing a total of five tonnes. Photo: Paul Hilton

A drastic change in attitude around the use and consumption of wildlife is needed. This will be hard to accomplish, since eating exotic animals for health and status and using parts of them for medicinal use is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Many Chinese believe that eating wildlife is good for your health, because you will absorb the animals' physical strength and resilience. Eating expensive, exotic delicacies, like monkey brains, pangolins and bear’s paws, are status symbols for the rich and elite. But there are some encouraging signs. A study by Beijing Normal University and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in 2012 found that in Beijing more than 80% of residents were opposed to wildlife consumption. And since the outbreak of the corona virus a group of 19 academics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and leading universities jointly issued a public statement calling for an end to the trade, saying it should be treated as a "public safety issue."

Another barrier to a total ban on the wildlife trade is the use of exotic animals in traditional Chinese medicine. Beijing has been strongly promoting the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) under President Xi Jinping and the industry is now worth an estimated USD 130 billion. And although the Chinese government issued a ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife, it makes an exception for wild animals used in TCM. According to the ruling, the use of wildlife is not illegal for this, but must now be "strictly monitored." However, it is not clear how this will be monitored and what the penalties are in case of non-compliance. Wildlife campaigner Aron White at the Environmental Investigation Agency explains that under the new ban there is a risk of wildlife being sold or bred for medicine, but then trafficked for food. The Chinese government needs to avoid loopholes by extending the ban to all vulnerable wildlife, regardless of use. "(Currently), the law bans the eating of pangolins but doesn't ban the use of their scales in traditional Chinese medicine," he said. "The impact of that is that overall the consumers are receiving are mixed messages."

Another major hurdle in curbing the wildlife trade is that it is a very well-organized and profitable industry, worth more than USD 73 billion and employing more than 6 million people, according to a government-sponsored report in 2017 by the Chinese Academy of Engineering. These numbers obviously don’t include the black market, which is already huge (worldwide wildlife trafficking has a value of USD 26 billion a year, making it one of the biggest illegal industries in the world). Outright banning all wildlife trade will risk driving the trade even further underground. Some animal parts from threatened species, like pangolin scales, rhino horns and tiger parts, are already being trafficked on a large scale. When they were banned it triggered a surge in trafficking of wildlife from neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. And traffickers are becoming more sophisticated and well-organized.

Even though there are several difficulties ahead, the consumption and trade of wildlife must be curbed, if another (massive) outbreak is to be prevented. The risk of zoonotic disease is rising exponentially: three-quarters of new diseases in humans are transmitted from animals. “The more we hunt wildlife, the more we come in contact with new environments and the more we increase the likelihood of us being exposed to these viruses,” explains Peter Ben Embarek of the World Health Organization’s International Food Safety Authorities Network. “It’s clear that poaching and hunting endangered species has to stop. It’s totally unacceptable. I think everybody in all authorities of the world are in agreement with that.”

The recent Coronavirus outbreak could be the right moment for environmental campaigners, academics, and policymakers to seize the moment and take advantage of the fear for another pandemic outbreak that is on everyone’s mind. Highlighting animal cruelty and the destruction of ecosystems has some impact but has not stopped people from buying those animals. “We’ve known about the conservation issues for 50 years. It’s never closed a market,” says Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance. “The one thing that’s ever closed a market is the emergence of a pandemic: SARS. And now this one.” People need to be convinced that eating wildlife is not healthy, has no status and is just simply not done. Otherwise demand will continue to exist. If there is a demand then the supply will find a way to satisfy that demand,” says Peter Ben Embarek. “It’s not just a matter of banning the trade of wildlife in markets. We also have to convince customers and people going to markets that it’s not appropriate. It’s not a good thing to consume and buy wildlife as food.” If we are to prevent these global viral outbreaks from happening in the future, we should leave wildlife alone and where it belongs, in the wild. Otherwise we risk many more epidemics, or even pandemics, of infectious diseases.