Exotic farms in China, most likely origin of Covid – News

The most likely origin of the pandemic Those are the exotic animal farms in southern ChinaAccording to environmentalist Peter Daszak, who is part of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in the Asian country.

WHO experts have found new evidence that these farms provide animals to the Huanan Market in Wuhan city, where the new disease was first detected.

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This was explained by Daszak in an interview broadcast on American radio. NPR.

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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 government as a way to lift the rural population out of poverty.

“In 2016, (the Chinese) had 14 million people employed on wildlife farms and it was a $ 70 billion industry,” Daszak explained.

However, in February 2020, Beijing suddenly announced its closure and ordered employees to “get rid of” the animals.

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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 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 passage of the coronavirus from a bat to some sort of wild animal and then to humans.

In addition, Daszak said that the sudden reaction of the authorities of the Asian country seems to him a clear sign that Beijing also suspected (at least in early 2020) that these farms could have been 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, now The main thing is to identify which species and which farm in southern China have become 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 outbreak 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.