Hyderabad: The coronavirus pandemic which rampaged through 114 countries across the globe leaving more than 1 lakh 21 thousand infected has exposed the secretive wildlife farm industry functioning in China.
According to the reports, nearly 20,000 wildlife farms have been shut down across China, a move that has exposed the unknown size of the industry.
Wildlife Farming in China
China's Wildlife Protection Law designates the animals as "resources owned by the state" and protects people engaged in the "utilisation of wildlife resources". Moreover, the law initially encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife animals which eventually gave birth to an industry.
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Wuhan's famous wet market in China has reportedly been the place where the virus which is marked by fevers and pneumonia-like symptoms originated. According to Peter Li, Professor, and expert on China's animal trade, the animals are traded in Wuhan from across the world and each one has the potential to carry its viruses to the market.
The Global pandemic
Some scientists have elucidated that COVID-19 genetically originated from Bats but an implicated intermediary animal host, Pangolin was involved in the process. The media reports say that the virus spread out contagiously not basically through food consumption but from handling the contaminated meat or touching them.
There has been constant pressure on China from across the world to ban wildlife farming, however, a 2017 report by the Chinese Academy of Engineering on the development of the wildlife farming industry valued the wildlife-farming industry those under operations at 520bn yuan, or £57bn.
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In 2002, amidst Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Southern China, the government banned wildlife farming only to declare 54 species of animals legal to farm again after a few months.
