Last blog I talked about how a virus can spread today. I am going to continue what the Chinese government did wrong. It encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife. With these underlying factors, a new industry is born. For example, bear farms in China started with just three and eventually grew to more than 1000 bears. More significant populations meant higher chances that a sick animal could spread disease. Farmers were also raising a wide variety of animals, which meant more viruses on the farms. Despite these odds, these animals were funneled into the wet market for profit. While this legal wildlife farming industry started booming, it simultaneously provided cover for an illegal wildlife industry. Endangered animals like tigers, rhinoceroses, and pangolins were trafficked into China. By the early 2000s, these markets were teeming with wild animals when the inevitable happened, which was the cause of the SARS Virus.
In 2003, the SARS outbreak was traced to a wet market in Southern China. Scientists found traces of the virus in farmed civet cats. Chinese officials quickly shut down the markets and banned wildlife farming. However, a few months after the outbreak, the Chinese government declared 54 species of wildlife animals, including civet cats, legal to farm again by 2004, the wildlife farming industry was worth an estimated 100 billion Yuan, and it exerted significant influence over the Chinese government.
The wildlife farming industry was tiny in China's gigantic GDP. Despite this, the industry had an enormous lobbying capability. It is because of this influence that the Chinese government has allowed these markets to grow over the years. In 2016, for example, the government-sanctioned the farming of some endangered species like tigers, and pangolins. By 2018, the wildlife industry had to grow 148 Billion Yuan and had developed smart marketing tactics to keep the markets around.
COVID-19 How it all started Part2
By: Ricksel Penullar