Bats bite back.

Byline: Irfan Husain

ON the Chinese horoscope, this is the Year of the Rat. Traditionally, the New Year begins with celebrations and feasts, but the lethal coronavirus has dampened all such festivities.

Many scientists trying to pinpoint the origin of this virus have concluded that it was caused by bats from a certain cave in Hubei province. From them it appears to have jumped to civet cats kept in small cages in the seafood market at Wuhan by way of urine or faeces. Some biologists conjecture that the outbreak was caused by snakes.

Whatever the cause, it is certain that China's food preferences have triggered this plague.

Don't get me wrong: as a foodie, I like to experiment and have been known to slurp down all manner of exotic dainties. Once in Hanoi, I was happily scoffing stir-fried locusts until my wife stopped me in mid-bite by saying: 'That one looks like a cockroach.' To this day, I don't know if she was joking.

People will be reluctant to visit a country that poses such a serious health risk.

But bats? Civet cats? No way. However, not everyone is restrained in their tastes. Most faiths practised in China do not offer dietary guidelines, so people will eat whatever catches their fancy. In fact, the rich will buy the most expensive beast or bug on the menu. Thus, entire nations are being stripped of their wildlife to satisfy the Chinese desire to impress and try novel dishes.

Donkeys in Africa are being shipped to China where their skins are turned into gelatine for traditional medicine. There have also been proposals to export donkey hides from Pakistan to China. The meat, of course, is eaten.

Pangolins, too, have been pushed to the edge by China's dietary habits. These helpless, scaly beasts are being scooped up from East Africa to Pakistan and trafficked to China where they are sold for $470 per kilo (as against $11 per kilo in the 1990s). The scales cost another $3,000 per kilo in Vietnam and China, and are used in spurious cures, including as a cure for impotence.

In fact, more endangered animals and birds have been slaughtered in search of an elusive virility than in any other cause. Our own houbara bustards have fallen victim to Arab royalty's compulsion to overcome impotence. But the killing of rare species like the Indian tiger, the rhinoceros for its horn, and elephants for their tusks has pushed them to the edge of extinction.

Fortunately, the giant panda and many types of whales are staging a slow comeback. Partly, this...