A lot of viruses that actually makes us sick, originally come from Animals, some of the viruses that cause flu come from Birds & Pigs, HIV/AIDS come from Chimpanzees, Ebola comes from Bats & in the case of coronavirus, there is some evidence that it went from Bat to Pangolin before infecting the human being.
While all these viruses are good at jumping between species & it is very rare for any of these viruses to come in contact with each other to infect human beings, unless all this host (Bat -> Pangolin -> Human being) need to come in contact with each other at some point, that’s where the Wet Markets come in the picture like Wuhan Wet Market in China.
Fig
– Major wet markets across world
Wet markets are present in all over the world, but particularly those in China is well known than others because of they offer a wide variety of animals including wildlife animals from all over the world & each animal thus have their own potential to carry their own virus to the market, the reason why all these animals are present at a single place becomes possible by the decision that China's Government make decades ago.
Fig:- Menu of the Wuhan Wet Market
China's History:-
Now, let's take a ride back in china's history, In 1970s China, is falling apart, famine has killed more than 36 million people, the communist regime which controlled all the food production of china is failing to feed all people. In 1978 when the regime is going to collapse they gave up this control of food production & allowed private farming.
While large companies started the production of pork & poultry, the smaller farmer turns to catch and raising wild animals as the way to sustain themselves, at initially it was very pleasant household farming/operations of turtles, since these activities are feeding the people the Chinese government has supported it.
But then in 1998, the government made the decision which changes the face of wildlife farming in china, They imposed the "Wildlife Protection Law" which designates the animals as resources owned by the state , the law also encouraged the "domestication and breeding of wildlife" & with that the "Wildlife Farming Industry" was born, small local farms turn into industrialized size operation, farmers were also raising the wide variety of animals which ultimately increases the chances of more viruses into the farm.
As this industry is started booming, eventually, it gave rise to the "Illegal Wildlife Trade", animals such as Tigers, Rhino, and Pangolins are trafficked into China.
As this Trade & Farming are reaching the sky rockets, finally inevitable happen in 2003 when the SARS outbreak takes place in mainland china, it was traced to the wet market in Foshan in southern China, scientist found traces of the virus in civet cats, Chinese officials quickly shut down the market & temporarily banned wildlife farming, But soon after a few months, the chinese government resumed the wildlife farming again & make the civet cats farming legal.
By 2004, Wildlife farming industry was worth an estimated 150 Billion US dollars, in 2016 the Chinese government has even sanctioned the farming of some endangered species like Tiger & Pangolins.
The Wildlife industry has been promoting these wildlife animals as tonic products, body-building products, etc., none of these claims don’t have any concrete proof.
Organizations around the world are urging and requesting china to ban this wildlife trade permanently, Chinese social media are flooded with the petitions of banning the trade, in response to this China is amending the Wildlife Protection Law.
But unless this action lead to a permanent ban on wildlife farming, outbreaks like this are bound to happen in the future, Hope China will learn the lesson from Coronavirus & will keep the Permanent ban on Wildlife trades.
Glossary -
1) Wet Market - A market where live animals are slaughtered and sold for consumption
2) Famine - Scarcity of food caused by various factors
3) Communist regime - The rule in which everything is owned by the government, countries such as China, Cuba, and North Korea are a few examples of Communist regime
4) Pork - Flesh of Pig
5) Poultry - Type of farming which raises the domestic animals and birds
6) Civet cats - An animal found in the tropical forest of Asia and Africa
7) Sanctioned - Official permission
8) Endangered - Species at the risk of extinction
9) Amending - Minor changes
Hope this well researched article has helped you too understand why china is the hub of new diseases
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Stay Safe & Stay Home.
