A Total Ban on Wet Markets? Not So Fast.

As COVID-19 tore through the globe, public attention turned to wet markets, particularly the  Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, as the leading culprit of the origin of the virus.[1] Scientists and public health officials have long warned that these markets are the perfect breeding ground for zoonotic diseases where “spillover,” when a virus can jump from one species to another, can occur.[2] Subsequently, calls for a ban on wet markets have come from a broad array of politicians and public health authorities such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and United Nations biodiversity chief Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.[3] What many of these bans fail to consider however is the varying degrees of risk posed by wet markets and the important role they play in communities. Additionally, an outright ban would likely push many of the most unsafe practices underground outside any regulatory scheme.[4]

First and foremost, it is crucial to understand the role that wet markets play in communities outside of the West. They span the globe and can be found in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in addition to China.[5] They aren’t just spaces for the trade of exotic, rare, or illicit wildlife but instead supply a wide array of foods such as fresh vegetables to live seafood. One study purports 30.3% of Beijing residents do most of their food shopping at traditional wet markets (while 49.4% of residents of Shanghai and 59.1% of those living in Guangzhou).[6] In Africa, wet markets provide subsistence in the form of access to wild meats.[7] Wet markets can also play an important cultural role, as one shopper stated “Everything comes alive in the market. Sitting in the office, I have no sense of season. The seasonal, colorful, fresh food in wet markets tell me the season.”[8]

Instead of a total ban on wet markets, international wet market regulation should consider the riskiest type of markets and behaviors. A 2021 Princeton University report proposes a useful taxonomy outlining the key risk factors wet markets pose to human-harm; (1) presence of

high disease-risk animal taxa, (2) presence of live animals, (3) hygiene conditions, (4) market size, (5) animal density and interspecies mixing, and (6) the length and breadth of animal supply chains.[9] The report concludes that the most high-risk markets are those with live wild animals followed by those with dead wild animals, and with risks varying depending on the interplay of the other factors. This sort of approach can ensure that international regulations are targeted, and more importantly, effective, at reducing the chance of the emergence of dangerous zoonotic viruses. By tailoring regulations, markets that don’t pose a risk to human health can be spared and continue to play an important economic and cultural role. Additionally, an outright ban could spark public anger in affected communities and cause backlash.

As international deliberations continue, focusing on the riskiest practices make for good policy and politics. The April 2021 interim guidance produced by the World Health Organization (“WHO”) does just this by focusing on the sale of “live wild animals of mammalian species.[10] Live animals pose a greater risk because “live animals can facilitate pathogen shedding and viral recombinations in new hosts, which in turn can heighten the pathogenicity of animals to each other and to humans.”[11] And mammals are riskier because the closer related a species is to humans the more likely that diseases from one species can adapt to another.[12] Additionally, as Western governments and policymakers call for increased regulation of wet markets, they should simultaneously be advocating for increased regulation of domestic intensive animal agriculture, where the next zoonotic virus could emerge. Recent history shows the risk associated with domestic farming operations, as the 2009 H1N1 swine flu killed 18,449 people, and was started at a large commercial pig farm in Central Mexico.[13]

In conclusion, commentators and those concerned with the risks posed by wet markets should refrain from “a blanket condemnation.”[14] By understanding the role of wet markets and focusing on high-risk factors, regulation can be tailored to ensure a reduced risk of zoonotic disease emergence while also ensuring the continuation of important cultural and economic centers.  

Dev Basumallik is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLV.

This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.
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[1] See Steven Lee Myers, China’s Omnivorous Markets Are in The Eye of a Lethal Outbreak Once Again, N.Y. Times (Jan. 25, 2020), ​​https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/world/asia/china-markets-coronavirus-sars.html.

[2] See “Spillover” events like the coronavirus have happened before. How do we stop them?, Ohio State Insights: Food and Agriculture, https://insights.osu.edu/food/coronavirus-spillover.; Jane Berg, Animals in Chinese markets carried SARS-like virus, CIDRAP (Sep. 09, 2003), https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2003/09/animals-chinese-markets-carried-sars-virus.

[3] See Patrick Greenfield, Ban wildlife markets to avert pandemics says UN biodiversity chief, The Guardian (Jan. 1, 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/ban-live-animal-markets-pandemics-un-biodiversity-chief-age-of-extinction; Quint Forgey, ‘Shut down those things right away’: Calls to close ‘wet markets’ ramp up pressure on China (April 3, 2020), https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/anthony-fauci-foreign-wet-markets-shutdown-162975.

[4] See Christos Lynteris & Lyle Fearnley, Why shutting down Chinese ‘wet markets’ could be a terrible mistake, The Conversation (Jan 31. 2020), https://theconversation.com/why-shutting-down-chinese-wet-markets-could-be-a-terrible-mistake-130625.

[5] See Sigal Samuel, The coronavirus likely came from China’s wet markets. They’re reopening anyway, Vox (April 15, 2020), https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/15/21219222/coronavirus-china-ban-wet-markets-reopening.

[6] See Masayoshi Maruyama et al., The modernization of fresh food retailing in China: The role of consumers, 30 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 33, 39 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.006

[7] See Vanda Felbab-Brown, Preventing pandemics through biodiversity conservation and smart wildlife trade regulation, Brookings (Jan. 25, 2021), https://www.brookings.edu/research/preventing-pandemics-through-biodiversity-conservation-and-smart-wildlife-trade-regulation/.

[8] Martha Cheng, The Case Against Wet Markets, The Atlantic (April 10, 2020), https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/04/ban-wet-markets/609781/.

[9] Bing Lin et al., A better classification of wet markets is key to safeguarding human health and biodiversity, 5 Lancet June 2021 at 386, 392, https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2542-5196%2821%2900112-1.

[10] World Health Org. et. al, Reducing public health risks associated with the sale of live wild animals of mammalian species in traditional food markets (April 12, 2021), https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/food-safety/ig--121-1-food-safety-and-covid-19-guidance-for-traditional-food-markets-2021-04-12-en.pdf?sfvrsn=921ec66d_1&download=true.

[11] See Bing Lin et al., supra note 9 at 388.

[12] See id.

[13] See Ignacio Mena et al., Origins of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in swine in Mexico, eLife (June 28, 2016) https://elifesciences.org/articles/16777.; World Health Organization, Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 – update 112, Global Alert and Response (Aug. 6, 2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20110327194118/http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_08_06/en/.

[14] See Bing Lin et al, supra note 9 at 386.