Explain origin of coronavirus

Dear Editor:

Since the first report on Dec. 31 that the new coronavirus outbreak occurred in the city of Wuhan, China, the disease, Covid19, has been spreading across the world. The latest statistics and how to protect oneself are available online.

By now, we know to wash our hands frequently, avoid crowds, stay home if feeling sick and shelve travel to foreign countries.

In comparison, news about the origin of this novel virus has been scarce. I found an interesting documentary on the virus at 60 Minutes Australia. The program shared undercover footage from an illegal “wet market,” where wildlife from numerous countries is sold and often butchered. The Wuhan wet market at which the coronavirus may have originated, infecting human handlers or buyers, has been shut down.

However, “60 Minutes Australia” reported that such markets still thrive in other Asian countries. No amount of handwashing will bring the virus under control if illegal wet markets are not eradicated.

As the source of the novel coronavirus is believed to come from animals, the Chinese city of Shenzhen has proposed a ban on eating dog, cat, and wildlife meat.

In North America, there have been no reports of wet markets at which new viruses may breed. That does not mean coronavirus incubators aren’t here. We don’t see them because they are legal operations where thousands of farm animals are housed, often in windowless barns.

Documentaries with undercover photos of animals destined for the back aisles of supermarkets are available online, but the images are gut-wrenching, so viewers are few. As the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss.”

Farm-animal welfare issues aside, the hidden danger to humans from intensive livestock operations is manure, lots of manure from thousands of animals raised and shipped to slaughter every day. I don’t know how residues of veterinary medicines can be extracted from livestock manure.

Factory farms are not cruise ships from which infected animals are eventually rescued.

A sick animal is simply removed, not treated, and the rest of the herd is given antibiotics or other medication to check the spread of whatever made the first animal sick. Livestock manure contaminated with residues of pharmaceuticals is a silent threat to underground drinking water reservoirs. Lagoons of manure are surely a threat to to the health of people and wildlife — not a far remove from Asian wet markets. I hope I’m wrong. Helen Schiele Kelowna