LAGOS (Reuters) – A few months after the Epe fish market was blocked to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, vendors at the Lagos state site in southern Nigeria are buying, promoting and exchanging animals.
A salesman disarm an endangered pangolin with a machete. Nearby, rodent lawn mowers are skinned. Most mask providers.
Experts say COVID-19, which killed about 1,000 more people in Nigeria, went from animals to humans, in all likelihood in a rainy market in China. But few others at Epe were worried.
“We are not afraid of him because the coronavirus is not internal to the meat,” said salesman Kunle Yusaf. “We eat meat, even this coronavirus, and we don’t have any disease.”
Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Olivier Restif has called for more education in the animal industry and hygiene.
“We are very involved with the risk,” he said of the markets where live animals are kept nearby. But he warned that simply banning markets can alienate others and bring the industry underground.
Charity WWF International said the pandemic “should be a wake-up call.” But the booming industry in Epe has shown unchanged attitudes despite the nearly 800,000 deaths worldwide through the virus.
Nigeria is also a hub for the illegal industry in Asia.
The Nigerian National Agency for Environmental Standards and Regulations (NESREA) responded to requests for comment.
WWF the economic tension of the pandemic had undermined conservation budgets in many countries.
Chinedu Mogbo, founder of the Green Fingers Wildlife Conservation Initiative, a wildlife sanctuary near Epe, hopes to inspire Nigerians to reduce their meat intake from wild animals and classic animal medicine, which can boost the unhygienic management of animals that can advertise transmission of the virus.
“They’ll appreciate it more if they come to see them,” Mogbo said.
Reporting through Angela Ukomadu and Libthrough George; Editing via Alexis Akwagyiram and Janet Lawrence
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