China announced that it would gradually prevent slaughter of poultry or selling it live in commercial markets, in a decision coinciding with the country's renewed battle against the emerging corona virus, and it was welcomed by animal rights defenders. The announcement comes at a time when China has intensified its monitoring of wholesale markets specializing in the sale of foodstuffs, and in the wake of its decision to ban the sale and consumption of wild animals.
The new Corona virus is believed to have appeared for the first time in the world with a live animal market in central China's Wuhan city, and the recent epidemic boom in Beijing has recently begun in a wholesale market for agricultural products in the capital.
"China will limit the trade and slaughter of live poultry, encourage mass slaughter of live poultry in places subject to certain conditions, and gradually close down the live poultry market," said Qin Shu, an official with the National Commercial Market Regulatory Administration.