Wuhan Bans Eating Wild Species, China Pays Farmers to Not Raise Exotic Animals

Wuhan China, the city of 11 million people where scientists now believe the coronavirus first began, has just announced it is banning the consumption of wild animal species for the next five years.

The Chinese government is also paying farmers cash to not raise exotic animals for consumption. Both moves were applauded globally by doctors and researchers who believe that the current pandemic is the result of the virus jumping from bats to another animal species in the wet market and then to humans since this novel coronavirus shares 96 percent of its genetic sequence with one found in bats. The coronavirus that has spread across the globe and taken the lives of 320,000 people and is far from done. One doctor called the practice of wet markets as creating a "superhighway" for viruses to travel from animals to humans. Shutting them down should be the goal, he added.

CBS News reported that Wuhan has also just banned virtually all hunting of wild animals within its limits, declaring Wuhan "a wildlife sanctuary," with the exception of government-sanctioned hunting for "scientific research, population regulation, monitoring of epidemic diseases and other special circumstances."

Last month, China has also classified dogs as pets, not livestock.

Watch the CBS news video updating the wet market situation in Wuhan.

Researchers believe that 70 percent of new diseases are coming to humans from animals.