The outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus?has been linked to Wuhan¡¯s Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.?Days before the virus was discovered, people were falling sick one after the other with mysterious pneumonia.?
After being determined as the Coronavirus epicentre, the market has since been shut in central China and has become ¡®ground zero¡¯; authorities said human-to-human transmission played a role in the spread.?
As reported by AFP, the food market's menu had a wide range of exotic wildlife - from wolf pups to species linked to previous pandemics such as civet.?
At Wet markets like these, stalls are squeezed together in narrow lanes and vendors slaughter live animals with no concern about hygiene - that makes it easy for a virus to jump from animals to humans.
A list of prices for one of the businesses operating at the market showed a menagerie of animals available for sale, including live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, koalas and game meats, according to the South China Morning Post.?
'Freshly slaughtered, frozen and delivered to your door', said the price list for the vendor, 'Wild Game Animal Husbandry for the Masses'.?
Dr Gao Fu, Director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Beijing on Wednesday, that authorities believe the virus likely came from "wild animals at the seafood market," though the exact source remains undetermined.
Many exotic species are still widely consumed in China and other Asian countries, where they are considered a delicacy - like a civet or some rats or bats - or for purported health benefits that are unproven by science.
But this brings growing human health risks, said Dr Christian Walzer, executive director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society's Health Programme.
The specific market where the outbreak began, the Huanan Seafood Market, was shuttered on January 1. The Coronavirus that emerged from there has so far killed 41, and 830 people have been infected.?