The adoption of a central butchery and the avoidance of eating
certain wildlife are the key to avoiding future epidemics, such as
atypical pneumonia, stressed a microbiology expert of a Hong Kong
university Monday.
In
an interview with Xinhua Monday, Yuen Kwok Yung, head of the
Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, said the
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus is definitely a
virus existing in certain wildlife. Without naming the exact type
of wildlife in question, he stressed that under normal
circumstances, the kind of animal does not have close contact with
human beings.
"Certain wildlife is supposed to be at a distance away from human
beings in the natural environment. When one handles them at a short
distance, the time one exposes himself or herself to them poses
danger.
"Now in that case, you would not know whether it was the blood or
the feces that pose the danger," he said.
And killing an animal for food must be executed very skillfully,
and the meat should be consumed within a certain period of time,
Yung said.
"Just like what was taught in the Analects of Confucius, you need a
skillful butcher in order to execute that well, and within a number
of days, the meat must be consumed. If the color becomes strange,
if it tastes bad and if the quality changes, don't consume it," he
said.
Yung euphemistically called on the public to observe good hygiene
in the foodstuff markets by introducing a central butchery.
After the invention of refrigeration, it is preferable to sell
frozen meat rather than living animals in the market places, said
Yuen.
Yuen cited the selling of living chickens, ducks and gooses in the
open market place in Hong Kong would have been contributed to the
outbreak of influenza in Hong Kong in 1957 and 1968. Though the
common flu can now be cured easily, it could not be then and was
lethal.
Meanwhile, Yuen also made a startling remarks during the interview
that SARS can in fact, survive for about 24 hours on dry surfaces
and shorter periods on wet surfaces.
(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2003)
