- "Thousands of wild and domestic animals are kept
in filthy cages stacked up to 10 high at the market, on sale to be butchered
for home consumption or boiled alive for the city's huge restaurant trade.
The stench is all pervasive: animals are left to defecate and urinate through
open mesh until being plucked from the cage to be killed on bloodstained
floors."
-
- Tests last week indicated a new case of the deadly Sars
virus in China, but despite warnings that the wild animal market may be
responsible for a repeat outbreak of the disease it is still trading
-
- GUANGZHOU -- A 32-year-old
man at the Guangzhou Number 8 People's Hospital in southern China has tested
positive for Sars, although officials from the World Health Organisation
have warned that the sample may have been contaminated and are set to release
the results of further tests this week
-
- A previously unknown disease, Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome killed 774 people, mainly in Asia and North America, last year.
It was traced to a coronavirus carried by cats, racoons and badgers - all
of which are still being sold in animal markets in southern China.
-
- The first suspected Sars carrier since the World Health
Organisation declared last July that the global epidemic was over, is a
freelance television producer identified only by his surname, Luo.
-
- The WHO has despatched a team to Guangzhou (formerly
known as Canton) to conduct its own diagnosis. If its findings back up
the Chinese results, the team will then try to determine whether the man
has been infected by a new strain of the virus or is an undetected sleeper
case from last year.
-
- A spokesman for the organisation said that the latest
tests confirmed earlier results indicating that the man had succumbed to
Sars but that the case lacked key factors. Specifically, the man had not
had prior contact with a person likely to have the virus or an animal carrying
it.
-
- The Centre for Disease Control in Shenzhen released a
report by Hong Kong and mainland scientists studying the Sars virus which
confirmed what had already been suspected: "The growth of wildlife
in markets in Guangdong [province] over the past 15 years has provided
an ideal platform to facilitate interspecies virus transmission from animals
to humans."
-
- Another study, published in the current issue of the
Journal of Virology is more specific, blaming the civet cat on sale at
squalid bazaars such as the New Source wild animal market in Guangzhou.
"It is believed to have been transmitted to humans by masked palm
civets [an animal related to ferrets and cats] in the food markets of southern
China."
-
- Thousands of wild and domestic animals are kept in filthy
cages stacked up to 10 high at the market, on sale to be butchered for
home consumption or boiled alive for the city's huge restaurant trade.
-
- The stench is all pervasive: animals are left to defecate
and urinate through open mesh until being plucked from the cage to be killed
on bloodstained floors.
-
- A vast variety of species - from ostriches to donkeys
- fill the cavernous market. There are crates of cats, dogs, reptiles and
exotic birds - including some of the 54 animals that were previously banned
from open sale on health grounds.
-
- Doctors believe that Sars occurs in winter because the
Chinese eat dishes made from animals such as dogs and cats which are prized
for their perceived healing or warming properties.
-
- Vendors at the New Source market compete by boasting
of the beneficial properties of the animals sold at their stalls. "Civet
cats are best eaten in the winter when they are fat and fleshy," one
stallholder announced. "You can stew them or make them into soup.
One civet cat will feed a whole family. They're very good for your health
during the cold weather."
-
- The animal trader, from central Henan Province, boasted
of selling up to 20 civet cats a day to restaurants and individuals for
up to 100 yuan (£6.70) each. "Trade was slow during the Sars
scare and when certain animals were banned from being sold," he said.
"For a while the local authorities conducted spot checks in the market
to see if we were selling anything we weren't supposed to. But now sales
have picked right back up. People are no longer scared of Sars and it is
a custom to eat these animals during the winter."
-
- Doubts about the safety of the product are firmly brushed
off. "I've been selling these animals for 10 years - they're completely
safe to eat," he said "Don't you think if they were dangerous
something would have happened to me by now?"
-
- When the Chinese government lifted a Sars-inspired ban
on the sale of wildlife in its animal markets, Beijing was criticised for
acting before medical research could establish the dangers posed by the
trade. Medical experts in the region such as Gail Cochrane, veterinary
director of Animals Asia Foundation, warn that official complacency is
exposing consumers to a host of unknown viruses.
-
- "Actual research into diseases and viruses in wild
animals is in its infancy," Dr Cochrane said. "The infected civet
cats don't appear to be sick - it doesn't seem to affect them. While coronaviruses
are common in animals, there's never been a problem with them being transferred
to humans until now, with Sars. Realistically, it's a one-in-a-million
chance but viruses aren't static they're mutating all the time."
-
- Another Sars outbreak would force China to recognise
the potential dangers posed by its animal markets. "Sars hit people
where it had to - in the pocket," Dr Cochrane said. "It devastated
the economies of Hong Kong and southern China. If they realise when these
things happen it will be major money they lose, then they will be forced
to look at conditions in these markets."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/04/wsa
rs04.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/04/ixworld.html
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