Bats/Wildlife food trade likely source of coronavirus

[Tobi]

The source of the coronavirus outbreak is almost certainly a wildlife/seafood market in Wuhan.
Bats are suspected as being the original source of the virus, which was then passed to some unknown wildlife species, and from that point, mutated to infect humans.
The market was shut down some weeks ago.

The Wuhan market also sold both live and dead wildlife of many exotic species. A proportion  of these animals were sold live, so as to "be more fresh for the buyer".

Here is a video interview with the New York Times correspondent in Beijing. Steven Lee Myers joins CBSN to talk about the potential link.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JFC81JEoIw

I have a feeling Steven Lee Myers and the video clips from the market have censored quite a few things from the report....
And he did not clearly answer the interviewer's question about what happened to the "merchandise" when the Wuhan market was closed on January 1st this year

[Catherine]

I am glad you got this posted. Your video link doesn't play in Canada so I have a different link to what might be the same story.

https://youtu.be/qjkg2Yd2cLI

It is clear that the wildlife trade is dangerous. They are bringing in animals and exposing them to each other and to humans. Viruses  mutate and they jump species with disastrous results. As long as the wildlife trade and live animal markets exist the whole world is at risk. It is not enough to regulate the trade or inspect the market. They need to stop the whole system of eating exotic animals and especially selling them live as food.  People are sometimes eating the meat raw. They are even eating things that are still alive. 
The results are things like SARS and this new Coronavirus. This all needs to change. If we treated animals with the respect they deserve we wouldn't have these outbreaks.

I can't even imagine why anyone would eat a bat. There would be so little meat that they would be taking a life for nothing.

I would assume that all the animals in the market were killed right away and their bodies disposed of. They didn't deserve to end up in that market and they didn't deserve to die that way. They wouldn't dare release anything for fear it carried the virus or worse, another virus.

[SameerluvAnimals]

Quote:Sara Platto, who studies animal behavior at Jianghan University in Wuhan, worries that all the speculation about pangolins being the source could drive people to kill them. Civets were killed en masse after the SARS outbreak. “The problem is not the animals, it’s that we get in contact with them,” says Platto.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00364-2


As far as i read, 3 animals are suspected being civets, bats and pangolins with the last 2 the most suspected.

Pangolins are said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world, is threatened with extinction. Poor pangolins..

[Catherine]

If we would just leave these animal alone we would not have a problem. We only pick up viruses when we disturb and kill the animals.
Pangolins are so badly treated. They are one of the most passive creatures and yet we treat them horribly.

We have brought this epidemic on ourselves by our bad treatment of animals. We need to change before we contract a virus that is as infectious as Covid 19, but more severe. Covid 19 is nasty to deal with, but most people are not too sick and they are recovering quickly.