Dealing with wild animals in China has been a source of criticism since the beginning of the corona pandemic. A report sheds light on a little-known facility in Wuhan.
Wuhan – While western states are demanding further clarification regarding the origin of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, the People’s Republic of China is vehemently resisting it. The communist government accuses the US of wanting to politicize the issue and feels portrayed as a scapegoat for the pandemic.
The G7 countries are not giving up on the question of where Corona first occurred. After the last meeting in Carbis Bay, England, the major industrial nations demanded in their final declaration a “timely, transparent, scientifically based study led by experts”. The investigations are to be organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) – as the second phase of the rather vague investigations in January and February in China.
Corona origin: Virus first appeared in Wuhan
The first confirmed infections with the corona virus were discovered in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. To date, the pandemic has claimed almost 4.5 million lives and has caused gigantic economic damage. A team of WHO experts investigated in Wuhan earlier this year, but there were allegations that the Chinese side had not cooperated transparently and inadequately.
Scientists recently criticized the journal Nature for the fact that the investigation at that time was a first step in the right direction, but that it had come to a standstill. They also called for the investigation to be continued. Among them was Fabian Leendertz from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin.
The window in which it is still possible to find early traces of the virus in humans and animals in China and elsewhere is closing rapidly. Antibodies that could provide clues dwindle in infected people over time, the experts wrote. They consider transmission from animals to humans, presumably via an intermediate host, most likely. Experts believe the virus may have spread to humans on wildlife farms. Many of them have now been closed and the animals have been killed, it said in the Nature article. According to Chinese figures, 14 million people probably worked on these farms in 2016.
China accuses USA of politicizing the search for corona origins
But laboratory theory is also part of the scientific debate. It is one of the “probable hypotheses,” said Danish scientist Peter Ben Embarek, who headed the WHO mission in Wuhan, on Danish television. He thinks it is possible that a laboratory employee was infected while taking the sample and that the virus was transmitted from bats to humans.
Among other things, China accuses the USA of politicizing the search for origin. “We call on the relevant authorities to stop politicizing the search for origin, to use the matter to scapegoat others and to evade their own responsibility,” said a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing in mid-July. That hinders international cooperation.
Corona origin: Wildlife center in Wuhan raises questions
Nobody knows whether it will ever be possible to clarify where the coronavirus comes from. It is clear, however, that there is a way of dealing with wild animals in China that encourages new pathogens. A new report by Al Jazeera has shed light on the Hubei Wildlife Rescue Center in the east of the city of Wuhan, which works together with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to its own information, it houses several animal clinics, monkey enclosures, enclosures for amphibians and reptiles, facilities for rearing wild animals and an animal hospital.
Several inquiries from Al Jazeera about the link it has between the Institute of Virology and the Wildlife Rescue Center and what practices the Animal Rescue Center is pursuing have been denied. Although no connection is officially known between the corona outbreak and the center, it raises questions about why no position is taken, according to the news channel.
The rescue center has been working with the laboratory on zoonotic virus research since 2013, the report said. Zoonoses are infectious diseases that are transmitted from animal to person and vice versa. In addition, the facility worked on breeding wild animal hybrids, i.e. crossing different species or genera. Since opening in 2000, more than 200,000 wild animals from 89 different species are said to have been housed in the facility.
Corona: Inadequate safety precautions for keeping wild animals in Wuhan
Although the center in Wuhan is said to have housed so many different animals, the security measures were apparently inadequate. In the course of six years, a monkey became famous because it kept escaping and was recaptured, Al Jazeera reports in reference to Chinese state media.
Next to the animal rescue center is the Jiufeng Forest Zoo, which is home to lions, tigers and camels, among others. The zoo is closed, although normal life has returned to Wuhan City. Why this is so is not known.
The facilities have not yet been the focus of the debate on the first occurrence of the coronavirus. However, experts interviewed by Al Jazeera said it is essential to have accurate information about what happened there in the months leading up to the pandemic and what wildlife was hosted. “Since almost all human viruses are derived from animals, it is of vital importance to know what wildlife was in Wuhan at the time of the virus outbreak,” said virus researcher Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney. This is the first step “to understand how this virus came about.” (Tvd)
