SARS virus hits Chinese trade in endangered animals

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http://www.enn.com/news/2003-05-01/s_4213.asp

 

SARS virus hits Chinese trade in endangered animals

 

01 May 2003

By Tan Ee Lyn, Reuters

 

HONG KONG — The global SARS virus may yet be good news

for the world's endangered animals, victims of an

illegal Chinese habit of eating rare species but also

prime suspects as incubators of deadly, new human

pandemics.

 

China is regularly criticized by world animal

protection groups, which they say turns a blind eye to

trade in endangered species because it is a lucrative

business. But now, faced with a SARS epidemic at home

that has dented its global image, created panic in its

capital, and threatened its economy and security,

China has been pushed into action.

 

A Chinese public security official in Shenzhen in the

southern province of Guangdong said on Wednesday China

had raided tens of thousands of markets, restaurants,

and kitchens to crack down on the trade and

consumption of protected animal species.

 

" In Guangdong, we have a law which says consumers must

also be punished, " said the official, who declined to

be named. " This law has been around for a while,

although we have never punished anyone for consuming.

But we will punish them from now on, if we find them

guilty. "

 

The operation, code-named Spring Thunder, is part of

China's belated battle to stop the spread of the

global SARS virus, which some medical experts believe

may have originated from the wild game that Chinese

are so fond of consuming.

 

China's official Xinhua news agency reported that

170,000 forestry police took part, raiding 14,900

animal fairs and 67,800 hotels and restaurants across

the country. Officials confiscated 838,500 endangered

animals and arrested 1,428 suspects.

 

Neighboring Hong Kong is also criticized as a conduit

for the trade in endangered animals into China.

 

China's failure to adequately inform the World Health

Organization when SARS broke out in Guangdong in

November last year has made mainland China and Hong

Kong global epicenters of the deadly and infectious

new disease, with almost 5,000 cases and nearly 300

dead.

 

HUMAN AND ANIMAL VIRAL SOUP

 

Several Chinese doctors have blamed the appearance of

SARS on the business. They say some of the first SARS

cases were in people who slaughtered and cooked game

birds for restaurants.

 

This link is not proven, but southern China's towns

and farms — where humans live cheek by jowl with their

own stock and pack markets with endangered species in

cruel and unhygienic conditions — have historically

been the place where some of the world's most deadly

plagues have begun.

 

When a virus manages to leap the barrier between

species, chances are it will be virulent and have no

known cure.

 

The public security official said hundreds of markets,

kitchens, and restaurants were raided between April 10

and 20 in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong

Kong. Protected snakes, pangolins, anteaters, cranes,

and turtles were confiscated.

 

" The operation is aimed at stopping the trade and

consumption of protected species. In Shenzhen, we

raided at least a few hundred restaurants, kitchens,

and markets and arrested traders there, " he said.

 

Traders of protected species face jail terms of up to

15 years in China. Those found smuggling China's top

protected species, the panda, face death, the Shenzhen

official said.

 

Scientists in Hong Kong have identified the SARS virus

— which is from the same family of viruses that causes

the common cold — as an animal strain that is new, or

which they have never seen before.

 

Scientist Dennis Lo, who was among a group of experts

at the Chinese University that cracked the genomic

sequence of the SARS virus, said it may have come from

wild animals.

 

" The virus is close to viruses found in rats and

bovines. It's likely that the virus may have come from

an animal that's not been studied before, such as wild

game, " Lo said.

 

The consumption of wild game is not as rampant in Hong

Kong as it is in Guangdong, although residents here

consume reptiles such as snakes and lizards during the

winter months.

 

Smugglers often use this former British colony, which

returned to Chinese rule in 1997, as a transit point

to spirit exotic and protected species such as monitor

lizards, pangolins, rare snakes, and turtles into the

mainland, where they end up on dinner tables.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

 

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