The Star, Malaysia : Guangdong to hunt out civet cats

Sunday, May 25, 2003

Guangdong to hunt out civet cats – possible SARS source

GUANGZHOU: Southern Guangdong province yesterday issued an all points bulletin on the endangered civet cat, most recently determined by medical scientists as the likely source of the SARS epidemic.

“This is an endangered species, the trade in this animal is totally illegal and is happening underground,” Feng Shaoming, spokesman for the Guangdong Health Bureau said.

Local police and health authorities would be stepping up actions to disinfect animal markets and hunt out traffickers in the endangered animals which had been favoured by local gourmets as wild and exotic food, he said.

Newspapers in Guangdong yesterday were plastered with pictures of the civet cat, with its characteristic striped face and long tail, following the announcement by researchers at the University of Hong Kong on Friday that the coronavirus which caused SARS had been traced to the feline.

“We have been looking at the same research for sometime, but we are still carrying out additional tests before we make a final conclusion,” Feng said.

Researchers had also found a similar coronavirus in racoons, another local wild food favourite, and had tested other prized gourmet animals such as badgers, weasels, and water rats. The mammals are regular captives in live animal markets, such as the Hua Nan Wild Animal Market and the Shijing food market in Guangzhou, and are prized dishes in wildlife restaurants.

The civet cat ranked as the second most popular “exotic” animal eaten by Hong Kong Chinese in a 1996 survey conducted by animal rights group Traffic East Asia. The cat ranked behind snake and ahead of the Pangolin.

Some of the first victims of SARS in Guangdong province, where the SARS outbreak started in November, were chefs or people who had contact with animals.

Huang Xingchu, China's first documented case of SARS and a former chef in Shenzhen city which borders Hong Kong, said in his first interview with the press on Friday that wild food was served at the unnamed Shenzhen restaurant where he worked when he fell ill. – AFP