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Dec 20, 2023
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'The outbreaks of both the Wuhan corona virus and SARS likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like.At such markets, outdoor stalls are squeezed together to form narrow lanes, where locals and visitors shop for cuts of meat and ripe produce. A stall selling hundreds of caged chickens may abut a butcher counter, where uncooked meat is chopped as nearby dogs watch hungrily. Vendors hock skinned hares, while seafood stalls display glistening fish and shrimp. Wet markets put people and live and dead animals — dogs, chickens, pigs, snakes, civets, and more — in constant close contact. That makes it easy for a virus to jump from animal to human. On January 22, authorities in Wuhan, China — where the current outbreak started — banned the trade of live animals at wet markets. The specific market where the outbreak might have begun, the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, was shuttered on January 1. The coronavirus that emerged there has so far killed at least 100 people and infected more than 4,600. \"Poorly regulated, live-animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spillover from wildlife hosts into the human population,\" the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement.'See also:
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