World health body urged: stop sale of live animals
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) is coming under some of the greatest pressure it has ever seen in its 72-year history, to force the closure of live animal markets to prevent future pandemics.
More than 200 conservation groups across the world have signed an open letter calling on the organisation to do all it can to prevent new diseases emerging from wildlife trade and spreading into global pandemics.
Scientists say the evidence points to Covid-19 originating from animals — most likely bats — in “wet” markets where live and dead creatures, from dogs and hares to turtles, are sold as food and slaughtered on demand.
Previous epidemics, including severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed nearly 800 people in 20023, and Ebola, which has killed at least 11,300 people, have also been linked to viruses caused by hunting bush meat or other wildlife consumption.
Ever since evidence of the Covid-19 link to Wuhan’s wet markets was revealed earlier this year, experts worldwide have called for such places to be shut down because of the risk of starting dangerous diseases.
The new joint letter calls on the WHO to recommend to governments worldwide that they bring in permanent bans on live wildlife markets and close down or limit trade in wildlife to reduce the threat to human health.
In February, the Chinese government temporarily banned such markets, although there is evidence some sellers have started up again or are dealing online.
The experts also want the use of wildlife, including from captive-bred animals, to be “unequivocally” excluded from the organisation’s definition and endorsement of traditional medicine. Last year the WHO added traditional Chinese medicine, which uses animal body parts, to its global compendium.
Conservationists say the WHO should work with governments and international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation to raise awareness of the risks the wildlife trade poses to human health and society. It should also support and encourage initiatives that deliver alternative sources of protein to people who survive on eating wild animals.
The letter, co-ordinated by wildlife charity Born Free and its Lion Coalition partners, is backed by organisations including the Bat Conservation Trust, International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Zoological Society of London.
Markets selling live animals — both captured from the wild and bred in captivity — are popular in southeast Asia but also exist in Africa and South America. The Chinese government encouraged them to expand and become more commercial during the 1980s.
Mark Jones (above), the head of policy at Born Free, said the trade in wild animals was not only bad for the welfare of millions of individual animals but was also a major factor in global declines in wildlife.