SYDNEY: A positive outcome of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic could be a better understanding of protecting biodiversity and a global ban on the trade in wild animals for food. The belief that Covid-19 began at a wet market in Wuhan in China, where wild animals were being sold for human consumption, has led to the Chinese government banning the trade in wild animals and a growing international campaign for this to be made into an enforceable international law.

At the Wuhan wet market and in many such markets across China and Vietnam as well, numerous wild animals, including live wolf pups, salamanders, crocodiles, scorpions, rats, squirrels, foxes, civets and turtles are being sold for human consumption.