The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been linked to contact between humans and wild animals at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Markets like this, known as “wet markets,” offer wild animals and their parts for sale, both alive and dead, as food and for use in traditional medicine. COVID-19, like other epidemic illnesses, like SARS, ebola, and HIV, is an example of a zoonotic illness; an illness that can be passed from animals to people.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, Born Free USA joins other wildlife and health organizations in an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on WHO to recommend that governments worldwide permanently ban live wildlife markets and the use of wildlife in traditional medicine. Not only is this trade detrimental to wildlife populations and biodiversity, it is also clearly a threat to global health.