Beijing / Madrid
Social networks boil these days with photos of Chinese citizens with masks … but also devouring raw frogs, drinking bat soup, buying braised rats in the markets. “How can they not get viruses if they eat cats, dogs, bats, snakes and centipedes?” Some ask.
After learning that the Wuhan seafood market, in central China and where wild animals were traded illegally for consumption, could have been the focus of contagion of the coronavirus, messages related to gastronomy that feed the food have proliferated. Stigma against the Chinese community.
It is true that, on certain occasions, the Chinese consume exotic animals, but neither it is a widespread practice nor the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that this is the focus of the infection nor is it possible to be infected only by consuming these wild species
WHAT DO CHINESE EAT REALLY?
In a country of 1,400 million people, it is not appropriate to say that the Chinese “eat everything”: the consumption of animals considered “exotic” – dogs, deer, pangolins, snakes – is a practice that exists, but that only occurs in some areas of the country and on very specific occasions.
Not surprisingly, many of these products are exclusive and expensive, so the ordinary Chinese does not consume them regularly and, increasingly, criticizes these practices.
The most documented case is the controversial festival held in the city of Yulin, in the southern province of Guangxi, where thousands of dogs are slaughtered, sold, cooked and consumed as part of a “tradition” that is being criticized not only for animal abuse, but also for the black market and the health problems it generates.
But the Chinese not only occasionally eat wild animals like a delicacy, to enjoy its flavor, but also because it is considered a traditional medicine.
The word “yewei,” which translates as “wild tastes,” refers to the consumption of these species for their supposed nutritional benefits and with the belief that they can help heal ailments such as male impotence, arthritis or gout.
In any case, the Chinese authorities decreed at the end of January the temporary suspension of the wild animal trade, after detecting that the origin of the outbreak would be found in the mutation of a virus from one of the animals sold in Wuhan.
In addition to fish, this street market also traded illegally with rat meat, peacocks, freshly slaughtered hares and even crocodiles.
In the wake of the epidemic, scientists, media, civil associations and individuals have raised their voice these days to ask for more severe and specific regulations, as well as more transparent information and awareness campaigns that curb trade and consumption of these animals.
CAN THE CORONAVIRUS BE FOUND BY EATING WILD ANIMALS?
In no case has there been talk of contagion by consumption of exotic animals, but by direct human contact with live animals that carried the virus and a subsequent transmission between humans by respiratory route.
On January 12, WHO published a statement explaining that “there is quite conclusive evidence that the outbreak originated from exposures in a seafood market in the city of Wuhan,” as confirmed by the Chinese health authorities .
In that line, the doctor in Microbiology and professor at the University of Burgos David Rodríguez Lázaro clarifies to EFE that the new coronavirus is a respiratory virus, that is, “its main mode of transmission is by inhalation of respiratory droplets that contain infectious viral particles “
“The beginning of this epidemic is due to a species jump from an animal host to the human being,” he emphasizes, but “there is no evidence in this epidemic that the transmission was food, but because of the close contact between animals and man” .
Also the expert in Microbiology and Virology of the University of Barcelona Susana Guix says that “in general, the consumption of animals or food of animal origin, unless they are raw or undercooked, does not entail a risk of transmitting diseases.”
Guix adds that the risk of a virus passing from an animal to man will be greater the smaller the evolutionary distance between the two species. “That is, for example, it is more likely that there is transmission of a viral infection between two mammals than between a reptile and a mammal.”
AND OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES?
There are more than 200 diseases that can be transmitted through food and more than 40 agents that can cause food poisoning have been described, according to the WHO.
However, the self-control carried out in the Industry and the official controls of the Administration minimize the risk in a significant way.
Therefore, when it comes to contracting diseases due to the consumption of animals, the fact that it is a wild or exotic species is not as important as the fact that the meat is well cooked and its commercialization complies with hygiene and food safety standards .
SOURCES:
– David Rodríguez Lázaro, doctor in Microbiology and professor at the University of Burgos
– Susana Guix, associate professor of the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the University of Barcelona.
– Information from the Chinese state television, CGTN, on the consumption of wild animals.
– Statement from the NGO China Development Brief
– .
