Wild birds sold at a market in the southern province of Long An (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Natural Resourcesand Environment (MoNRE) has demanded sectors and localities nationwide toenhance the management of illegal wildlife caging, trading and consumption.
The move was made amid complex developments ofthe 2019 novel coronavirus that causes the acute respiratory disease called COVID-19,which is believed to spread to humans from wild animals.
In its document recently sent to otherministries, ministry-level agencies, Government agencies, and provincial-levelPeople’s Committees, the MoNRE asked them to boost communications to raisepublic awareness of illegal wildlife hunting, trading, caging and consumption,as well as risks of disease infection posed by the consumption of and contactwith wild animals.
It also asked law enforcement bodies like forestprotection, market surveillance, customs, border guard and police forces toenhance coordination in restaurant and business examination to prevent wildlifetrading in unlicensed markets and strictly deal with violations of relevantregulations.
Besides, ministries, sectors and localities needto instruct wildlife breeding facilities to increase quarantine and sterilisationmeasures, limit contact with wild animals, and keep in touch with localmanagement agencies to stay updated with disease information, according to theMoNRE.
Meanwhile, many organisations like the WorldWide Fund for Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, Fauna and FloraInternational, Save Vietnam’s Wildlife and Animals Asia have sent open lettersto the Prime Minister of Vietnam to call for the eradication of illegalwildlife trading and consumption.
They pointed out that many epidemics over the last20 years have connections with virus clusters in wildlife populations.
For example, the severe acute respiratorysyndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and early 2003 that infected more than 8,000people in 37 countries and killed 774 of them, came from a new beta-coronavirusstrain that hails from bats and is transmitted via the masked palm civet(Paguma larvata).
Meanwhile, the Middle East respiratory syndrome(MERS) that broke out in 2012, spread to 2,494 people and killed 858 wascaused by another coronavirus strain transmitted from camels to humans.
The African swine fever, which recently wreakedhavoc on pig farming in China, Vietnam and nine other countries, is believed tocome from wild boars in Africa, according to the organisations.
They said the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic willcause considerable impact on Vietnam. Therefore, they called on the VietnameseGovernment to take strong and sustainable actions to prevent illegal wildlifetrading and consumption to ensure national safety, economic security and publichealth, as well as to conserve ecosystems./.
VNA
