Nigeria's wet markets thrive despite coronavirus pandemic

By Angela Ukomadu and Libby George
LAGOS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Just a few months after Epe Fish
Market was under lockdown to stem the spread of the new
coronavirus, vendors at the site in the southern Nigerian state
of Lagos are back buying, selling and trading animals.
A vendor descales an endangered pangolin with a machete.
Nearby, grasscutter rodents are skinned. Most of the sellers
wear masks.
Experts say COVID-19, which has killed around 1,000 people
in Nigeria, jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a wet
market in China. But few in Epe were worried.
"We are not afraid of it because the coronavirus is not
inside the meat," said vendor Kunle Yusaf. "We do eat the meat,
even during this coronavirus, and we do not have any disease."
University of Cambridge epidemiologist Dr Olivier Restif
called for more education around safe animal trade and hygiene.
"We're very concerned with the risk that it poses," he said
of markets where live animals are kept in close quarters. But he
warned that simply banning markets could alienate people and
drive trade underground.
The WWF International wildlife charity said the pandemic
"should be a wake-up call." But the booming trade at Epe
illustrated unchanged attitudes despite the nearly 800,000
killed worldwide by the virus.
Nigeria is also a hub for illegal wildlife trade to Asia.
Nigeria's National Environmental Standards and Regulations
Enforcement Agency (NESREA) did not respond to requests for
comment.
The WWF said the economic strain of the pandemic has sapped
conservation budgets in many countries.
Chinedu Mogbo, founder of Green Fingers Wildlife
Conservation Initiative, a wildlife sanctuary near Epe, hopes to
encourage Nigerians to cut bushmeat consumption and avoid
animal-based traditional medicine, which can fuel the unhygienic
animal handling that can aid virus transmission.
"I believe they will appreciate them more, coming up close
to see them," Mogbo said.