"Live animal markets (also known as ‘wet markets’ in parts of Asia, such as the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan China, in which live fish, meat and wild animals are sold) are an important risk factor for disease spread, as is the global wildlife trade," Mrema said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Measures taken by countries to reduce the number of live animals in food markets have the potential to significantly reduce the risk of future disease outbreaks," she stated, adding that "stricter controls on the sale and consumption of wild species must be scaled up globally."
Mrema noted that a blanket ban on the trade of wild species would not eliminate the risk of future zoonotic spillover and could create favorable conditions for illegal trade, which could see new diseases emerge.
She further stated that the international community must implement more robust, comprehensive and coordinated prevention mechanisms, as well as enhance the capacity to detect, examine and respond to future health emergencies - measures that are far less costly than dealing with the effects of a full-blown global pandemic.
Recent data shows that over 1.4 million people globally have been infected by COVID-19, and a minimum of 80,000 have died. Some scientists have suggested that the virus is a mutation in a bat host that then jumped to humans in a wet market in Wuhan, China.
