SHANGHAI - The food market where China's deadly virus surfaced was a smorgasbord of exotic wildlife ranging from wolf pups to species linked to previous pandemics such as civets, according to vendor information and a Chinese media report.
A price list circulating on China's internet for business at the Wuhan market lists a menagerie of animals or animal-based products including live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, camel meat and other game -- 112 items in all. China bans the trafficking of a number of wild species or requires special licenses, but regulations are loose for some species if they are commercially farmed.
The paper also quoted other merchants as saying trade in wildlife took place up until the market was shuttered for disinfection shortly after the outbreak. Walzer said 70 percent of all new infectious diseases come from wildlife, with habitat encroachment increasing the chances of pathogens spreading.
Bats are thought to have spawned SARS, which in 2002-03 killed hundreds of people in Asia, mostly China.