- China has temporarily banned the trade in wildlife on its soil to block the road to the coronavirus.
- Experts say the epidemic in the country - and others around the world - comes from a wild animal sold in the Wuhan market, the starting point for the disease.
- "The transmission of a disease from animals to humans is very frequent", according to Antoine Gessain, virologist at the Institut Pasteur.
The coronavirus epidemic is bringing back painful memories in China. Between 2002 and 2003, the SARS virus killed 800 people. At the time, contact with wild animals had been found responsible for the outbreak of the epidemic. But seventeen years later, the lesson does not seem to have been learned: wild animals are still sold on the Chinese markets, and seem to be at the origin of this new coronavirus, baptized 2019-nCoV. While China has just “temporarily” banned the sale of these animals for fear of worsening the epidemic, questions abound about the risks associated with this very popular practice in the country.
Snakes, rats, wolf cubs, salamanders ... You could find everything on the market stalls in Wuhan before it closed. “We quickly learned that it was related to this seafood market, which also sold other live animals. The first people concerned all had this market in common, ”explains Jeanne Brugère-Picoux, honorary professor at the National Veterinary School in Alfort. According to the first studies, the coronavirus comes precisely, like its predecessor, Sras, from an animal. This time it would be the bat's fault. The bird would have transmitted it to a species yet to be determined, which would have subsequently contaminated man. According to an article in the Journal of Medical Virology , this animal could be a snake.
1.7 million viruses still unknown
While science is still trying to identify the origin of this new disease, researchers point to the too close proximity between animals and humans in these markets. “It is linked to the density of the population: China is a very dense country, in which we buy sometimes living wild animals to eat them. And these are significant risk factors, ”points out Antoine Gessain, laboratory manager at the Institut Pasteur.
To this commodification is added the disappearance of the natural habitat of these animals, continues Antoine Gessain: "The fact of cutting the forest, of going hunting everywhere promotes contact between the reservoir animal (the one carrying the virus , with or without symptoms) and the human population, and this will encourage the emergence of new viruses ”.
Because this is the crux of the problem: in nature as in the city, wherever there is contact between humans and wild animals, there can be contamination. Fortunately, these “meetings” between species do not all generate nightmarish scenarios. "An animal that transmits a disease to a man is called a zoonosis," says the professor. "And this transmission is very frequent," adds Antoine Gessain. "More than two thirds of infectious diseases (bacteria, viruses or parasites) transmitted to humans were caused by animals," adds Jeanne Brugère-Picoux. This is the case of SARS, which had been transmitted by civet (a small carnivore). Ebola, transmitted by the bat. Or AIDS, by the monkey. Even poultry and livestock can cause diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob or avian flu.
And the reservoir of disease in animals would still be very large. According to the Global Virome project, which aims to improve the way to cope with pandemics, there are still more than 1.7 million undiscovered viruses found in wildlife. Almost half of which could be harmful to humans.
World
Coronavirus: French expatriates in Wuhan calm despite the crisis
Society
No, the coronavirus was not created (nor patented) in the United States
- Trade
- Animals
- World
- China
- coronavirus