For the WHO, the origin of the pandemic lies in the farms of exotic animals in southern China

The experts of World Health Organization understand that the most likely origin of the pandemic is the exotic animal farms in southern China. This was put forward by the environmentalist Peter Daszak, which is part of the WHO mission to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in the Asian country.

Daszak spoke in an interview broadcast on US NPR radio and said he found new evidence that these farms were providing animals to the Huanan Market in Wuhan city, where the new disease was first detected.

WHO to publish final verdict on the origin of the coronavirus

The ecologist, chairman of the non-governmental organization EcoHealth Alliance, said that before the coronavirus pandemic, this livestock sector was thriving and encouraged by the Chinese government as a way to lift the rural population out of poverty.

“In 2016, 14 million people were employed on wildlife farms and it was a $ 70 billion industry,” Daszak explained. However, in February 2020, Beijing suddenly announced it was shutting down, ordering employees to “get rid of” the animals.

Authorities “issued a statement saying they were going to stop raising wild animals for food” and “sent instructions to farmers on how to safely dispose of the animals – bury them, kill them, or destroy them. burn – so as not to spread disease, ”he said.

The path of the coronavirus, from bats to humans

The expert and his WHO colleagues who visited China earlier this year believe that farms in southern China’s Yunnan province, or neighboring Myanmar, could have contributed to the coronavirus jump. of a bat to a kind of wild animal then to human.

In addition, Daszak said the sudden reaction from the authorities in the Asian country seems to him a clear sign that Beijing he also suspected (at least in early 2020) that these farms might have at the origin of the epidemic.

It is estimated that the WHO will present a report containing some of the researchers’ findings over the next two weeks. According to Daszak, the main thing is now identify which species Yes what a farm in southern china became the link between bats and humans.

The WHO-led team of international specialists – made up of experts from the United States, Australia, Russia, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam – arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan in mid-January, where the first coronavirus epidemic was recorded, to investigate.

There, they met Chinese medical experts and held talks with staff from research institutes, hospitals and local residents. In addition, they visited the hospital that treated the first Covid-19 patients and the Wuhan meat and seafood market.