At the end of 2019, China experienced an unexplained increase in pneumonia cases. Shortly thereafter, some of the first thousand cases became fatal.
Chinese doctors called the cause of pneumonia, COVID-19 - Coronavirus Disease 2019 - otherwise called "coronavirus disease 2019".
In an effort to trace the origins of the new coronavirus, doctors identified a possibly source country for a meat and live market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people over 1,000 miles south of Beijing.
It turned out that 27 of the first 41 patients had been in this market. It was not essential, but the Chinese state decided to immediately close the market from similar stories in the past.
In 2002, a coronavirus called SARS spread from a similar market in southeast China, affecting 29 countries and killing about 800 people.
Eighteen years later, the new coronavirus COVID-19 has become pandemic. It has spread to about 130,000 infected in over 110 countries and has killed more than 4,800 people - over 4,000 in China and Italy alone.
But what do the livestock markets have to do with coronavirus epidemics, and why do viruses spread from China?
Many viruses that cause disease in humans are derived from animals. Some flu viruses come from pigs and poultry. HIV is thought to be derived from chimpanzees, Ebola from night bats, etc.
In the case of COVID-19, data show that, before passing on to humans, the virus switched from a nocturnal nude to a pangolin - a scaly mammal with a long nose, living mainly in Africa and Asia.
Viruses are capable of passing from one species to another, but infrequent viruses are so infrequent that they can reach humans, as the species need to be close to one another.
At this point, the meat and livestock market in Wuhan is linked as a strong reason. A place where animals are kept in poor hygienic conditions and cages on top of each other.
In such conditions viruses can pass from one animal to another. Then, if an infected animal comes into contact with the human, the virus can pass on to them and thus can spread an epidemic.
There are similar markets around the world, but those in China are the most popular because they have all kinds of animals - even wildlife.
The reason why China's pet markets are so diverse is related to a decision the Chinese state made decades ago.
In the 1970s China was kneeling by mass starvation. About 35 million people died of food shortages.
The communist regime, which possessed all the productive capital and applied the practice of subjugation, was failing to feed some 900 million people.
In 1978, on the brink of collapse, the regime relinquished control of every capital and allowed peasants to set up private farms.
Due to the fact that state-owned companies controlled the production of raw materials and the soft-cattle market, many peasants found survival in the capture and breeding of wild animals. It started with turtles, snakes, bats, etc.
The Chinese state supported the fact that people were being fed and earning their livelihood in this way.
In 1988 wildlife was called state property and was considered a natural resource. With such an approach, the use of this "resource" was encouraged by the state. Thus began a separate industry.
Small farms quickly turned large with expansion in some areas and diverse animal husbandry. Smuggling began in the market.
Animals declared extinct as tigers or rhinoceros were trafficked to China. Until the early 2000s, this market was experiencing continued growth.
In 2003, the coronavirus epidemic known as SARS broke out. The source was a market in the city of Foshan in southeast China.
Doctors found traces of the virus at a breeding farm of wild African cats - Civettictis civetta.
Soon after the discovery, the Chinese authorities closed the market and stopped wildlife breeding, but a few months after the SARS epidemic calmed down, the decision was withdrawn.
China's wildlife market ranges from $ 1 to $ 2 billion. It carries negligible weight in gross domestic product, but it has a strong lobbying network, affecting Chinese officials as well.
Since the 2000s the promotion of wildlife breeding has transcended the boundaries of the Chinese provinces enough to create a general stereotype about their consumption.
In fact, most of the Chinese population do not feed on wildlife. Their customers are thought to be mainly the powerful and the rich.
International animal protection organizations have advocated changing the situation in China.
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, China has again halted wildlife breeding while shutting down some of their trading markets.
But until the ban becomes permanent, there is no guarantee that other outbreaks will not erupt again.
Source: Exit.al
