Regulation of Wild Animal Wet Market

Regulation of Wild Animal Wet Market written by Akshat Tripathi student of NMIMS SCHOOL OF LAW, MUMBAI

Abstract

The study centers around one of the most stringent subject around the world. It will provide an articulated analysis of the inception, transmission and provide an comparative analysis of the Animal wet culture in china with respect to the rest of the economies which is signatory to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It will provide an better understanding as the Jurisdiction of various economies are taken into account giving an insight to the rules and regulations of the same. Thus it will an essential piece of information shaping the global world.

Introduction

The term wet market came into the picture in the year 1970’s in Singapore where it was recognized as national heritage. The terminology is defined wet because fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and meat must be kept moist.

The term “wet” is refers to the perishables which are sold at these markets. Kelly Guerin Quoted wet  markets as “It just seems like everything is dripping wet and splashing and spilling over, and bits of meat are being flipped from cleavers, and water’s being splashed from the chicken washing station, and feathers are steaming in a corner”. It has been observed that wild animals have lead to the causation of several path breaking pandemics in our recent past including Ebola and HIV. By slaughtering and selling wild animals for food  is one way on animal- borne disease may infect people moreover it has been observed that viruses spread more easily  if animals in markets are sick or kept in dirty, cramped conditions, such as in stacked cages. Thus it becomes necessary to combat such activities for sustainable human and wildlife existence. The FAO bio security guide for live poultry markets and the WHO guidelines on healthy markets deal with avian influenza transmitted to humans through close contact with infected poultry in wet markets.

Wet Market: China And the Global Economy

Wet markets are an everyday destination of the citizens of the china , they usually stock everything up from fruits and vegetables to fresh meat, seafood to herbs and spices which all are on open air display. Such places are called wet in order to demarcate them from the markets selling dry packaged food such as noodles. However it has been constituted that since the inception  of COVID-19 pandemic it has been consistently argued that the wet Markets in china have sourced out the way for SARS 19. It was evident that Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market has a section selling wild animals which included badgers, wolf pups , snakes , bamboo rats and porcupine. According to the menu which was posted by one such stall on the facebook it comprised of 100 varieties of live animals ranging from foxes to peacocks to masked palm civets. Moreover it is believed that Civet Cats are thought to have been instrumental in transferring SARS from bats to humans in 2002-2003 epidemic outbreak. Thus it is concluded that it isn’t a wet market in its strictest sense, but wildlife market. 

The presence of wet markets in not only perennial to China, however, such markets are found in many Asian countries besides China, including Myanmar, Vietnam , Thailand, Taiwan , Hong Kong, United States of America, there are more than 80 “storefront slaughterhouses” in New York City alone that run in a similar way to Asian wet markets. In northeastern India, wild foods are widely sold in local markets in India to shelter some of the world’s wet markets. There is a range of wild plants , fish and rodents on the market in Arunachal Pradesh. A group meeting place is the Kokrajhar market in the Bodo district of Assam, with its live eels, birds and piglets, in addition to dried fish and beef. As a result of its crickets, hornets, caterpillars, snails, frogs and, especially, eels and snakes, the Kohima Naga Bazaar has become a tourist attraction. Not only are such activities visible in the north-east, but their sheer supremacy in metro India is very dominant. 

A selection of dry goods and staples, new fruits , vegetables and all sorts of animal foods are shown in its closely-clustered stalls. The demand for meat and seafood is especially renowned in INA: lobster, prawn, crab, eel, mackerel (kingfish), occasionally even stingray, except for chicken and turkey. These foods may derive from farms, aquaculture in fresh or brackish water, or fish from natural ecosystems. They are now coming to the European and American economies, which are apparently referred to as the “Farmers Market,” giving them more credibility. Salmon and seafood markets in North America, such as the Public Market in Vancouver, Canada, or the Pike Place market in Seattle, United States, are as wet as any Asian fish market, but are known as cultural hubs. The US has thousands of wet markets, according to estimates. 

Wet Market and Wildlife Market

It has been noted that the two terminologies intersect with each other, so an embodied definition of the same becomes important. Since wet markets do not sell live animals, it has been found that both words are frequently in contrast with each other. Wildlife markers are located internationally, and often they give illegal species alongside approved ones, they may be legal. How many wildlife markets there are in China and elsewhere is uncertain. It is suspected that the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in a “wet market” where wild animals were traded. Yet these markets are part of the commercial trade in wildlife: a much broader scheme that, for the sake of benefit, facilitates and allows wild animals to be viewed as commodities. The dilemma is, however, much larger than China’s economies. The pandemic is a symptom of an increasingly barbaric and unsafe world trade (both legal and illegal). As part of consumer growth, the multi-billion dollar global wildlife exchange exploits millions of species every day to meet customer demand. COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease caused by COVID-19, meaning it originated in an animal. The cause of the epidemic is thought to have been a “wet market” in Wuhan , China, which, along with other foods for human consumption, sold live and dead wildlife and domestic animals. These markets may be a living petri dish, with viruses transmitted in unhygienic environments by stressed animals deposited together to combine with other body fluids. The outcomes may be devastating as these sometimes new or unfamiliar viruses leap into individuals. The new pandemics linked with zoonotic diseases are:

An array of transdisciplinary science is required to counter and avoid pandemics. The key causes of the transmission of zoonotic diseases, such as illegal trade in animals and wet markets, must be discussed in science. Scholars in public health, conservation biology, and illegal trafficking should work together to tackle the elements of supply chains, abuse, and commerce that may lead to zoonotic transmission. In order to follow the supply chains related to illegal trading in animals, far more work with the business community would need to be undertaken. Governments would still need to be active to take measures to eradicate trade in animals to avoid potential outbreaks.

Wildlife Wet Market and COVID-19

While the precise location of SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of COVID-19, is currently unclear, there is significant evidence to indicate that within the Wuhan wet market the origins of transmission of the virus occurred. In these markets, bats and wild animals are often traded and stored in near proximity with each other. During many past pandemics in the world, bats were necessary to transmit zoonotic diseases from bat to another animal or directly to humans. Live animal markets provide the optimal environment for the introduction of novel viruses such as COVID‐19. Important data indicates that live animal markets or wet markets in Wuhan , China, are the main source of virus spread. A big indicator is that some of the first patients tested positive for COVID‐19 had links to the wet markets in Wuhan . Transmission may have happened at the wildlife market or on the way to the wildlife market where it is possible to export illicitly traded wildlife. It is still unclear exactly how the virus was transferred from animals to humans, but public health authorities and biological experts have long been concerned about the risk of bats transmitting disease. Owing to the lack of herd immunity within the population, viruses transmitted from animals to humans are very harmful to human health.

“Scientists believe that 3 out of 4 new or developing infectious diseases in humans originate from wildlife,” the Los Angeles Times wrote. A horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) known as RaTG13 was found to be carrying a type of corona virus at the Institute of Virology in China, which shared 96 percent of its DNA with SARS-CoV-2. Past research has shown that bats are central to the transmission among animals and humans of COVID-like diseases. While rodents bear the burden of distribution.

Past research has shown that bats are central to the transmission among animals and humans of COVID-like diseases. While rodents are blamed for the spread of the bubonic plague during the fourteenth century, as reservoirs for zoonotic viruses, bats offer a peculiar danger, containing far more bacteria and diseases than rodents. The concern about the transmission of pathogens from bats to humans is widespread; scholars have also researched a great deal, not just by public health practitioners. The American Society for Microbiology released a paper entitled Discovery of a Novel Corona Virus in Bats, which reported that “the latest appearance of the corona virus synonymous with extreme acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) illustrates the importance of wild animal virus surveillance.” Wild carnivores, birds , reptiles and primates sold in these markets bear pathogenic compounds of all taxonomic backgrounds. Pathogens such as Newcastle disease may also jump from wild to domestic births.

Jurisdictional Laws and Regulations

Wet wildlife market are definitely a source of several zoontic outbreaks as it was evident that close contact with wild life animals have caused numerous diseases in humans before the COVID-19. Similar conditions were scripted to conditions including in Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), have been caused by virus strains with zoonotic origins, meaning that they originated in an animal host before spilling over to human populations. Ebola, Nipah virus, and H1N1 (swine flu) also have zoonotic origins. Thus acute legislation and regulation of such practices is necessary in order to desire sustainability of life. In India the most important legislation of all pertaining to food is food safety and standard act (FSSA), 2006. The act punctuate  Indian food regulations as per the international standards. Under the act a valid license is required for any food related venture In order to ensure safety , sanitation and hygiene, the act has lead to the closure ho several illegal slaughterhouses and butcher shops. The prevention of cruelty to animals rules 2001 states that the animal must be healthy before it is slaughtered for meat, it also insists on isolation of animals which are suspected to be contagious in nature. The municipal laws of various states also play in regulating the cause as under section 415 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 provides that no animal may be slaughtered except at a municipal or registered slaughterhouse. Section 407 of the act provides that in localities where a municipal slaughterhouse exists, it is illegal for animals to be killed anywhere else the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, it is illegal for slaughterhouse waste to be discharged into any water body. Moreover  in the year 2019 the FSSAI mandated a food safety audit for business categorically belonging to dairy products, meat and meat products, fish and fish products and egg and egg products, food for infant nutrition , consequently 24 audit agencies were outsourced to conduct such surveys through hygiene rating method. Such laws if regulated and enforced in an automated manner will surely go a long to ensure ecological balance in the economy.

Several jurisdiction have laws pertaining to the breeding and raising of wild animals for commercial purposes including the DRC, Nepal, Thailand , turkey and Vietnam. During the ongoing pandemic several countries have banned the trade of wild animals in response of the pandemic including china, Cote d’ Ivoire , DRC, However in Indonesia such practices are still followed , though there is restriction on the supply of meat in order to discourage the consumption. Marking a law as having a partial approach or a gap is not intended to say that wildlife and zoonotic diseases must be regulated by the type of law being reviewed. Ultimately, the assessment of each jurisdiction’s approach is a function of all laws that apply. The Gambia’s Wildlife Conservation Act is an example, prohibiting the commercial sale of any wild animal, meat or trophy, with the exception of bush pig.6 Mauritius takes a similar approach by prohibiting trade in all prescribed and scheduled species, including selling it for consumption by human beings. Of the jurisdictions reviewed, Kenya provides an example of law that expressly regulates markets in the context of wildlife trade, New Zealand animal product law also abides by the same approach. However, laws are selective reformative with respect to the global changing dynamics of the real world. Now being specific to china where wet markets were temporality closed in response of the pandemic. All the street markets of the Egypt were shut in order to combat the spread. Pakistan tend to have their own jurisdictional values where the markets are governed by the provincial laws including food and sanitization laws. Thus it necessary that such laws should be regulated judiciously in order to ensure systematic compliance, abiding the law and order .

Conclusion

 To eradicate the root cause of the next pandemic, ending the selling and consumption of high-risk and unsustainable wildlife products is crucial. It will require a concerted global effort to minimize these hazards. It will help protect biodiversity and ensure the safe use of wild resources by closing high-risk wildlife markets and preventing trade in high-risk species. Fortunately, the Chinese government took steps to impose a ban on wildlife consumption after the COVID-19 outbreak. The ban in China could be a game-changer if meaningfully applied. In order to minimize the risk of zoonotic diseases and avoid potential outbreaks, WWF encourages other countries to rapidly introduce similar prohibitions and regulations. We call for immediate action to close high-risk markets and stop illicit and unregulated trade in wildlife that affects biodiversity and, as we know it, threatens human health and our nature.

References

1. Dina Fine Maron study: Wet markets likely launched the corona virus, National Geographic.( 15^th April,2020) Available at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/04/coronavirus-linked-to-chinese-wet-markets/.

2. Peeter Beech study: what we’ve got wrong about China Wet market and its link to COVID0-19, World Economic Forum. ( 18^th April,2020) Available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/china-wet-markets-covid19-coronavirus-explained/.

3. Sumi Krishna study : Don’t fear or judge the wet market too quickly, Science the Wire.( 13^th June,2020) Available at https://science.thewire.in/environment/coronavirus-pandemic-wet-markets-wild-foods/.

4. Elizabeth Claire Alberts study: What’s in a name? “wet markets” may hide true culprits for COVID-19,Mongabay news and inspiration from nature frontline. ( 22^nd April, 2020) Available at https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/whats-in-a-name-wet-markets-may-hide-true-culprits-for-covid-19/

5. Sigal Samuel  study: corona virus likely came from China’s wet Markets. (15^th April,2020). Available at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/15/21219222/coronavirus-china-ban-wet-markets-reopening

6. Ainur Rohmah study : wet markets selling wildlife, The corona virus Pandemic( 14^th April,2020) Available at https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3079402/wet-markets-selling-wildlife-birds-monkeys-bats-and-more