Fears ongoing wet market sales will spawn new deadly diseases
in Chatuchak, in the heart of Bangkok, live animals smuggled in from all over the world are sold as pets.
These include African wild cats, fennec foxes from the Sahara, marmosets from South America as well as snakes, monkeys and tortoises.
Prof Cunningham said such species never mix in the wild so are vulnerable to viruses carried by each other.
The extreme stress of being held in captivity also increases the scale of “virus shedding”, he added.
In Burma the town of Mong-La, near the border with China, is a notorious sin city where women, guns, drugs and wildlife are trafficked.
Its market sells a gruesome array of body parts from endangered species including tiger skins, bear paws, and pangolin scales, which are prized in traditional Chinese medicine.
Prof Cunningham said the ongoing global trade put us all at risk of further outbreaks of “zoonotic” viruses – those that spread from animals to humans.
He warned: “Where live animals of different species are brought together and held in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, the likelihood of an animal being present that carries a potentially zoonotic virus is increased.
“Also, the chances that animal will be stressed and will be shedding the virus will be increased.
“The highest priority for the protection of human health is to ban wet markets.”
An estimated 20,000 markets China, have been shut down.
But there are significant loopholes for traditional medicine.
And it is feared powerful players in the lucrative industry will lobby to water down regulations or drive the in
Chopped snakes at ‘Extreme Market’
Bats on stall
Pangolins, tigers and cheetahs discovered in swoop by Thai Army trade underground. The 2002-3 SARS outbreak, traced to a market in southern China, saw Beijing impose a limited ban. But restrictions faded.
Jeffrey Flocken, of Humane Society International, welcomed the country’s new clampdown but warned it would be “a grave mistake to think that the threat is isolated to China”.
He said: “Wildlife markets across the globe, but particularly in Asia and Africa, could easily be the start of disease outbreaks in the future.”
BEAR Paw at Mong-La Market, Burma