Could Eating Less Wild Animals Help Prevent Pandemics?

A survey reveals that people, notably in Asia, have consumed less wildlife – or stopped altogether – as it is closely linked to health crises such as the corona pandemic, a positive step towards better addressing future outbreaks.

“The only way to prevent future pandemics is by reducing destructive human activities that drive the loss of nature – such as deforestation, unsustainable wildlife trade and risky wildlife consumption – rather than reacting to outbreaks after they have emerged,” says Marco Lambertini, Director General, World Wildlife Organization (WWF) International.  “Prevention of pandemics is estimated to cost 100 times less than responding to them.”

In the survey COVID-19: One Year Later: Public Perceptions about Pandemics and their Links to Nature conducted for the WWF, almost 30% of the citizens surveyed in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States have eaten less wildlife or none. In China, 28% of the surveyed population reduced its wildlife consumption because of COVID-19. In Thailand, the proportion nearly doubled – 21% in 2020 and 41% in 2021. In those five countries, the need to close high-risk markets selling wildlife and stop deforestation is widely approved – 85% and 88% respectively – since the two activities are linked to zoonotic disease outbreaks. In China, 91% of the surveyed population believe that closing high-risk wildlife markets are the most effective measure to prevent pandemics, and in Vietnam, it’s 84%.