vesicles
Colonel
I agree that many people go to fresh meat of wild animals because of their distrust of the safety of the normal meats, like poultry, pork, etc. The most effective solution is to set up clear regulations for the normal meats and hold up the accountability. As soon as every aspect of the normal meat is tightly regulated, people will regain the trust and no longer need to go to wild animals. This is in fact the most important thing, in stead of allowing unregulated wild animal markets. With or without the ban of the wild animals, China still needs to clean up their entire production chain for their normal meats.
Yes, banning anything will cause its price to skyrocket. However, that shouldn't be a reason for banning anything. There is a huge and highly profitable black market for illegal drugs. Should we un-ban illegal drugs? As long as the punishment is severe enough and effectively executed, the banning will be effective.
Banning will also effectively minimize the size and frequency of any of these wet markets, thus decreasing the chances of spreading any diseases.
It's not about examining an animal in the wild for potential infection. It's about a highly efficient cleaning and sanitation protocol, which effectively isolates meats, handlers and the general public. This effectively prevents spreading of contagions.
I have hunted myself. Being living in Texas for close to 30 years, I have hunted wild boars many times. Texas has a serious infection problem with wild boars and we don't even need a license to hunt wild boars. Yes, we have our regular butcher to slaughter and clean up the boars. He has license for butchering and inspectors come to inspect his shop randomly on a regular basis. All his equipment must be cleaned on a daily basis. That means his entire kitchen, including all his equipment and surfaces (all must be stainless steel) in the kitchen must be hosed down with soapy water and cleaned thoroughly at the end of the day. Equipment for handling pork, poultry or beef cannot be mixed. You cannot handle different meats at the same time with the same equipment. He was once fined $2000 for having his bin for used towels visible from the front door. An inspector ambushed him in the morning when he opened his shop. The inspector went in and saw a bin containing used towels from the night before. The inspector issued him a $2000 fine for not properly collecting and disposing off his used towels and leaving the towels out in the open during the night. With a strict sanitation regulation, it become difficult to transmit anything even if a wild animal carries something.
That's why we have been told not to hunt/handle wild birds during the first bird flu outbreak. People have also been saying that our cats and dogs often hunt and bring back home infected birds, which might be one of the sources of the outbreak.
There is no need to paint this as a west vs. east (China) thing. In time like this, everyone is trying to find ways to improve our habits and what we do so that we can somehow make it a little more difficult for this kind of epidemic to occur again. For instance, everyone is talking about how the Italians like to hug and kiss, which may have helped the virus spread. That may not be the main reason but may help. Similarly, banning wet markets for wild animals may help a little bit...
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