Southeast Asia:Disease threat from wildlife is a key topic

Southeast Asia:Disease threat from wildlife is a key topic
submited by kickingbird at Sep, 30, 2004 16:27 PM from The Nation

BANGKOK: Disease transmission from wildlife to humans could be a major topic of discussion at the upcoming international conference on wildlife trade as Southeast Asia and host country Thailand battle a second outbreak of bird flu. Many deadly diseases that threaten humans originated in different wildlife species, according to Carroll Muffett, director of international programmes at the US-based Defenders of Wildlife. In the past few decades, the international trade of both live animals and butchered meats has caused diseases to spread from one continent to another, Muffett told The Nation ahead of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which starts in Bangkok on Saturday. “Avian influenza, Sars and HIV/Aids, you name it, all originated in animals,” Muffett said. “A growing array of disease in humans has been transmitted through consumption of wildlife. This is a new way to look at [the impact of] wildlife trade.” Muffett said the continued consumption of wildlife meat had the potential for disastrous consequences. The Simian Immune Deficiency Virus (SIV), which could damage human immune systems in a similar way to HIV, has its source in primate meat, including chimpanzee and gorilla, which is consumed and traded in Congo and West Africa, where HIV was first detected. Disease outbreaks, in turn, pose a threat to wildlife populations and could drive some species into extinction. China, for example, ordered a mass cull of civet cats in the wild after the recent Sars outbreak. The problem is expected to worsen as the international system to limit wildlife trade struggles to cope – and faces a greater threat from the growing global trade in commodities, facilitated by increasingly important groups such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Countries are likely to bring up the issue of free trade to counter proposals to tighten rules on trade in endangered species, Muffett said. At the 12th Cites conference in Chile two years ago, WTO compliance became a big issue, particularly when countries negotiated rules for trade in wildlife and plant products with high trade volume, such as timber and shark products. “The United States is the big offender of environmental treaties,” Muffett said. “People from the US trade representative office are likely to be a part of the US delegation to Cites in Bangkok.”

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