Chinese Snake Breeding Village Reels From Wildlife Ban Following Coronavirus Link

The small snake breeding village of Zisiqiao in China currently has to comply with a ban on wildlife trading enforced as part of measures to curb the spread of the corona-virus pandemic.

Zisiqiao village has, for decades, bred and sold snakes, creating a franchise that employs hundreds of people.

However, the wooden breeding slats that could produce three million snakes per year stand empty and abandoned.

Even the specialty snake meat restaurant situated at the edge of the village has had to drop snake meat delicacy from its menu.

Seventy-one-year-old former breeder Yang Heyong said no one in the village was breeding snakes anymore.

The Zisiqiao village, for four decades, has enjoyed its fame as a snake culture tourist destination, while the village's economy relied heavily on breeding snakes to sell in restaurants or to use in traditional medicines.

The current consensus is the coronavirus came from the sale and handling of exotic animals in Wuhan's Hunan seafood market.

On 23rd January, China issued a ban on consumption or trade of wildlife, insisting it would amend its laws to make the ban permanent.

The Zisiqiao village is two hundred kilometers from Shanghai built just along the edge of the canal. The typical breeding season for snakes in the village starts in April and May. So the effects of the ban on the economy of the village are yet to be fully felt.

Some of the breeders in the village hoped the restrictions would lessen once the epidemic was under control, but Chinese officials insist the ban is permanent.

All new licenses, if issued, would be under stricter guidelines.
Lu Jinliang, the vice chief of the local Communist Party, said snake breeders would have to switch to new professions and "raise other species."

The snake trade in China is big business as the country can produce seven to nine thousand tons of meat per annum.

The regulations are timely, considering studies are now suggesting "intensive farming" of the exotic animals could have increased the risk of parasite and infectious disease transmissions from animals to humans. The rest of the world is also dealing with the severity of the disease.

Professor Yu Xuejie from Wuhan University's School of Health Sciences, however, does not believe that exotic snakes were the origins of the current corona-virus outbreak.

Other published research papers have also contributed to the theory that the source of the corona-virus was likely "mammalian," and bats and pangolin could also be possible sources.

Various animal welfare organizations have supported the ban that China has imposed on wildlife and snake farming.