Iris Publishers - Global Journal of Engineering Sciences (GJES)
Authored by Markus
Walkling-Ribeiro
Due to the most recent outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV2), having spread on a worldwide scale and associated with a wet market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, as the initial source of human virus infection, the need for systematic food safety engineering of wet markets is urgent.
Food
safety hazards in wet markets are reviewed concisely in this work and different
mitigation strategies are discussed, that are likely to have an immediate
impact on potential hazards and aim at minimizing the chance of foodborne
pathogen occurrences and transmissions at these markets. Moreover, the topic of
pathogen detection and traceability is raised as a prerequisite for advocating
the perpetuation of wet markets in addition to their cultural and existential
significance.
With
an emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic looming on the horizon
and the maximum risk level declared by the WHO [1], not only global containment
of the SARS coronavirus 2 is a priority but also its mitigation [2]. At present
the latter is typically related to quarantine of those infected and
decontaminating associated contact persons and sources. However, some wet
markets still operate unmitigated in China [3] as well as in other regions
around Asia and in other parts of the world, whereas the wet market in the city
of Wuhan, Hubei Province, which was suspected as original source of animal to
human transmission has been shut down as well as others in large cities in
China for the moment [4]. Following avian influenza (H5N1) outbreaks in Hong
Kong in 1997 and 1999 with virus transmission from chickens to humans as well
as the first outbreak of SARS coronavirus (CoV) in Guangdong Province, China in
2002, for which the original source of contamination has also not been
determined to date but is also thought to originate from an animal reservoir,
many wet markets have continued to operate as before, posing significant food
safety hazards, while a few wet market locations started with setting up
counter-measures, for instance, centralized abattoirs instead of on-site animal
slaughter and the ban of wild animals sale [5,6]. Although wet markets are an
integral part of culture, a traditional source for affordable and locally
produced food, a place to meet and socialize, and many people depend on them to
secure their livelihood in many countries around the world [7-12], with the
death toll rising from the current coronavirus and the challenge to prevent
pathogen outbreaks in mind many scientists in China and elsewhere have recently
voiced their opinion to abolish (wildlife) wet markets [13,14]. However, due to
the high transmissibility and rapid propagation of coronavirus [15] and other
pathogens [11,16,17] and the likely migration across borders [18], a ban of wet
markets would require all countries, where these markets can be found, to take
this action in order to become an effective solution, which seems to be
unlikely. By contrast, existing food safety hazards of wet markets and
different strategies for pathogen mitigation are reviewed and examples for
their implementation provided, thereby, effectively addressing the urgent
imperative to engineer sufficient food safety solutions for wet markets (Table
1).
To read more about this article: https://irispublishers.com/gjes/fulltext/mitigation-strategies-for-set-market.ID.000599.php
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