The United States urged China to close the markets of wild animals. China responded that such markets in the country

The United States urged China to permanently close the markets of wild animals. This is stated in the statement of US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo, which is April 22 published on the website of the American foreign Ministry.

In the West, such markets are called “wet”. He pointed to their Association with zoonotic diseases (i.e. those transmitted between animals and people).

“Given the strong link between the illegal selling of wild animals in such markets and zoonotic diseases, the United States urged China to permanently close markets that sell raw foods from the wild animals and all the markets that illegally sell products made from wild animals,” – said in a statement.

The market for wild animals in Wuhan, China, may have started the spread of the coronavirus SARS-СoV-2.

In late February, the Chinese government introduced a temporary ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals for food. The decision stated that the trade in wild animals for medical purposes and scientific research will undergo a rigorous approval procedure.

At a briefing on 23 April, foreign Ministry spokesman China Geng Shuang responded to the statement Pompeo. He said that markets for wildlife in China is not. ToAK and in many countries in South-East Asia, in China, there are farmers markets, seafood markets, and “a very small number of markets that sell live poultry,” said the diplomat.

“They are an important part of people’s daily lives. In international law there is no prohibition on the opening or the operation of such markets,” quoted Geng Shuang, the press service of the Ministry.

He assured that the wildlife trade in such markets are illegal and that “narsenia will be stopped”.

Edition of National Geographic noted that many Chinese eating wild animals “is a cultural phenomenon,” but it all depends on the region, for example, in Guangzhou eat a lot of exotic animals, local residents, and in Beijing, this tradition did not catch on. How markets in wildlife works in China, not exactly known, but according to respondents, National Geographic experts, hundreds of them.

After the situation with the spread of the coronavirus in China has begun to stabilize, according to media reports, the country began to open markets to wildlife. In late March, the British newspaper Daily Mail published this material. According to her, these markets, in particular, has opened in Guilin and Dongguan. Journalists managed to photograph a Billboard on which buyers offer Scorpions, lizards and bats, which are widely used in Chinese folk medicine.

Scientists believe that the chain of transmission of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19, were involved wild animals. According to data from the world health organization, the natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, most likely, are the bats and the transmission of the virus to people, I went through another intermediate animal, domestic, wild or domesticated, which is not yet identified.

Flash coronavirus infection COVID-19 began in Wuhan in December 2019. March 11, the world health organization declared the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to information of the American Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus, the world has infected more than 2.64 million people, more than 184,6 thousand of them died, and 721,5 thousand recovered.