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 The guidance, aimed at ensuring the global food system is safe and
sustainable, follows a WHO-led mission to Wuhan, China to
investigate the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"This + other recommendations will contribute to < the risk of
emerging #zoonoses," Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO official who led the
January-February mission, said in a tweet.
The WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and U.N.
Environment Programme (UNEP) urged national authorities to: "Suspend
the trade in live caught wild animals of mammalian species for food
or breeding purposes and close sections of food markets selling live
caught wild animals of mammalian species as an emergency measure
unless demonstrable effective regulations and adequate risk
assessment are in place."
They said animals, particularly wild animals, were reported to be
the source of more than 70% of all emerging infectious diseases in
humans.
China last year banned trade in wildlife for human consumption but
legal loopholes allow some disease-prone species to be farmed,
according to regional experts.
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The WHO-led team, which visited the Huanan market in Wuhan where the
first human infections of COVID-19 were detected, said the new virus
had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another
animal.
The guidance said "significant problems" can arise when these
markets allow the sale and slaughter of live animals.
"When wild animals are kept in cages or pens, slaughtered and
dressed in open market areas, these areas become contaminated with
body fluids, faeces and other waste, increasing the risk of
transmission of pathogens to workers and customers and potentially
resulting in spillover of pathogens to other animals in the market,"
it said.
Most emerging infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, Marburg
hemorrhagic fever and Nipah viral disease have wildlife origins, the
guidance said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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