WHO calls for suspending the sale of live wild animals in markets to avoid future pandemics

Several international organizations, including the WHO, called on Tuesday for the worldwide suspension of the sale of live wild mammals in food markets, due to the significant risks of transmission to man of new infectious diseases.

“Animals, particularly wild animals, are the source of more than 70% of all new infectious diseases in humans, many of them caused by new viruses.”Stressed in a statement the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Transmission to man of the virus covid-19 in this way is one of the preponderant hypotheses of the experts who work for the WHO.

In their recent report on the origins of the disease, they highlighted that a market in Wuhan – the Chinese metropolis where the first cases were registered – seems to have been one of the most important points of spread of the pandemic at the end of 2019.

Since then, the disease has spread throughout the world and caused more than 2.93 million deaths, according to an AFP count as of Monday.

In addition to the suspension of sales, international organizations are calling for an improvement in hygiene and sanitation standards in these traditional markets to reduce both animal-to-man transmission and contagion between traders and customers.

In addition, they demand a regulation to control the breeding and sale of wild animals intended for sale in markets for human consumption.

The organizations are also calling for veterinary inspectors to be trained to apply these new standards and for surveillance systems to be strengthened to quickly detect new pathogens and launch information and awareness campaigns for traders and customers.