In the epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), between 2002 and 2003 in China, also caused by a coronavirus, the host was the civet, a small meat mammal much appreciated in China.
To contain the epidemic, the Chinese government announced, in late January, a temporary ban on trade in wild animals. The creation, transport and sale of all wild species are also prohibited indefinitely.
Chinese scientists identify pangolin as the main channel in the transmission of coronavirus
Every year, 100,000 pangolins are traded illegally in Asia and Africa, being a species more coveted by wild animal traffickers than an elephant, or rhinoceros, according to the NGO WildAid.
Its meat is highly appreciated by Chinese and Vietnamese people and its scales, bones and organs, used in traditional Asian medicine.
In 2016, the International Convention on the Trade in Endangered Wild Species introduced the pangolin on a list that prohibits its commercialization.
According to NGOs, however, despite this measure, illegal trafficking of this species continues to increase.
See the explanatory video on the transmission of the virus between animals and humans
See below the interactive map with all confirmed coronavirus cases
If you can’t see the map developed by Johns Hopkins, follow to this link.
See the expansion of the coronavirus in images
–
