Chinese wildlife targetted in SARS crackdown

Chinese officials today began raiding wildlife markets believed to be possible sources of SARS.

The crackdown came after officials banned trade in wildlife this week. Medical experts suspect that the virus might have come from wild animals sometimes eaten by Chinese.

The southern province of Guangdong is famous for such exotic dishes, which include snakes, civet cats and badgers. Many believe the meat increases virility, enriches the blood and boosts the body in other ways.

Agents in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, raided four wild animal markets where they seized 267 pheasants, 54 foxes, 55 pounds of snakes and other wild birds.

The World Health Organisation said that antibodies found in workers who handled exotic animals at a food market in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen support the theory that the SARS virus jumped from animals to humans.

Last week, scientists reported evidence of the SARS virus in three species of mammals for sale at the market: civet cats, racoon dogs and badgers.

Medical checks on 10 market workers found that five had SARS antibodies, disease-fighting proteins that give evidence of a prior infection.

The study done by Hong Kong and Shenzhen researchers found that the participants could not recall becoming ill, which indicates that, at most, they had mild infections, said Dr Klaus Stohr, Who’s chief SARS virologist who is co-ordinating global research on the virus

Elsewhere today, Taiwan’s much-criticised hospitals got high marks for reorganising to better fight the disease.

Hundreds of people in Canada were told to stay at home in quarantine following a renewed outbreak there, while a Singapore court fined two men €246 each for spitting in public. The fines are part of the city-state’s tough anti-SARS measures.

The global death toll climbed to 744 as Taiwan reported five more fatalities, China added four and Hong Kong had one.