Dr Peter a J Holst

The Chinese Year of the Flying Rat Dr Peter a J Holst

Since Aug 2018 there have been outbreaks of African swine fever in several provinces of China. Up to 200 million pigs have been culled or died due to the disease, while pork output felt by 30%.

At the end of 2019, there was a first outbreak of corona virus in Wuhan, which has since been established to be the source of this virus. After the 2013 SARS epidemic, which spread from Hong Kong, Chinese virologists warned earlier that batborne CoVs will re-emerge to cause the next disease outbreak. China is a likely hot spot. Bats live in proximity to humans and farms. The ability to fly of these flying rats makes them wide-ranging, which helps in spreading viruses, and their excreta can spread disease. Bats are host to a higher proportion of zoonoses than all other mammals.

It is high time for humans to adopt different eating habits and no longer trade with wildlife.

The oldest civilizations in the world have emerged in China. The Chinese government's decision to close live markets (forever) is very good.

McDonald and KFC also do a lot of damage. Grasslands and grazing animals have an enormous ability to hold carbon. Agriculture can produce better vegetables and fruit as food for us than the corn and soybeans with which we now fatten and lock up the animals in factory farms to be eaten by us.