If you are reading this blog on your mobile phone with 5G reception you are likely to get COVID-19. Ok, I have your attention, but that is perhaps the most outrageous claim among the many promulgated (widely, I might add) about the COVID-19 virus. Much commentary has also suggested that, as with all the recent widely distributed infectious diseases, COVID-19 appears to have originated from the wild. Several recent studies have emphasised this origin for novel disease, but there are still many unanswered questions about the ways of transmission, and the role changes to intact wildlands have in enhancing transmission from wild animals to people.
Again, despite swirling conspiracy theories, and in the absence of firm proof at this stage, it seems the virus infected “patient zero” after contact with a wild animal at the so-called wet market at Huanan in Wuhan, China. Wait, I hear you ask, how is that from the wild? Well, this market has all manner of wild-caught produce from marine and freshwater fish to many exotic wild animals, alongside domestically reared animals.
Such a market is not a place for those with fragile stomachs, but while much is legally caught, or harvested from the wild, or perhaps captive bred, there exists the possibility for illegally caught wild animals to be sold. Of course, if the source was illegally traded there is zero chance of this link now being discovered. Once into the human population the initial source is somewhat irrelevant anyway, and not only has there been human-human transmission, it appears big cats at the Bronx Zoo were cross-infected from people.
Some early genetic work on the virus found connections with this same virus in bats. Bats are well-known havens of viruses, especially the so-called microbats, but also the megabats (flying foxes or fruit bats). Even as I write I read results of a study that detected six new Corona viruses in Bats in Myanmar. Bats are used for “wild food”, often illegally. But the collection and sale of bat guano (faeces) from bat caves as a very rich fertiliser presents another infection route. Back to how the virus reached patient zero – a study reported in Science on the comparative genetic structure of COVID-19 viruses implicates pangolin as an intermediate between bat and human, although other animals yet untested could fit the bill.
And here is where wildlife trade becomes relevant. Pangolin are probably the most widely illegally traded animals. While the meat is a prized delicacy in Asia, the scales are highly regarded in traditional medicines. Up to now trade in pangolin has been regarded as a conservation issue, but COVID-19 suggests it could be a human health issue too. At the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg in 2016, delegates applauded as all eight pangolin species were “up-listed” to be among the most endangered species, that should not be traded. And yet, here we are…
Whether bat, pangolin, both, or even another vector entirely, illegal trade is clearly a major route to poor human health. Last week a letter was sent to the World Health Organization, signed by 200 organisations dealing with animal welfare and conservation demanding an end to all wildlife trade. There are important complications to all this – those people, largely rural poor and indigenous, who use wild-caught meat for protein.
The Wildlife Conservation Society issued a slightly more moderate policy recommending ending all (not simply illegal) commercial trade in wildlife for human consumption, and recognising that there may be a need to work with Indigenous peoples to ensure their cultural and nutritional needs are properly respected in such decisions. Such “big-bang” polices appear superficially attractive yet there are all sorts of complications, which paradoxically may encourage yet more illegal trade!
China’s response has already been that it will thoroughly ban the illegal trading of wildlife – a welcome and measured response. On April 8, BBC news illustrated a news item on COVID-19 and trade with a photograph showing elephant tusks – using a familiar, charismatic, heart-tugging meme. Wildlife trade that is illegal must be tackled seriously, but we have to stop featuring iconic species which are not implicated in disease spread.
April 7 was ironically World Health Day, and the Acting Executive Secretary for the CBD in a message said “The One Health approach, which recognises the intrinsic connection between human health, animal health and the health and resilience of nature, can help guide us towards an effective post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
We can’t argue with that, but lets try to keep a clear head on the issues of disease from the wild, seek solutions that stop illegal trade yet don’t punish rural poor and indigenous peoples of the world, but allow us all to be more prepared in future – for COVID-19 will not be the last. We are but animals, after all.
Peter Bridgewater is a Senior Fellow at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Australia. The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Bright Blue.