World Health Day 2020 - ban the donkey skin trade to reduce health risks
Brooke is marking World Health Day by reiterating a call for a global ban on the trade of donkey skins and a crackdown on cross-border smuggling of donkeys for their skins. The donkey skin trade carries huge risks for animal and human health, as well as being devastating for the welfare of donkeys, and the livelihoods of the people who rely on them.
Late last week it was announced that Shenzhen Province in China has banned the sale and consumption of cat and dog meat, going one step further than the recent ban on the trade and sale of wild animals, the latter being linked to the COVID-19 outbreak. Demand for dog and cat meat it low in China, but this is still another positive step towards limiting both the spread of disease at ‘wet markets’, and the animal and human health risks associated with them.
Dogs and cats aren’t the only domestic animals caught up in a hazardous trade - donkeys across the world, mostly in Africa, are being killed for their skins to be made into a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao. At all stages of this process, there are huge risks to human and animal health, as well as animal welfare.
“Both the cross-border trade of live donkeys and cross-continent trade of donkey skins carries a dangerous risk of disease spreading. We saw it last year across West Africa with a deadly outbreak of equine flu, and if this trade isn’t stopped, there could be another, serious outbreak of disease - 75% of emerging infections have transferred from animals.”
The donkey skin trade and spread of disease between humans and animals is also part of a wider context of One Health, the health system that links people, animals and the environment. Laura Skippen continued:
“The COVID-19 pandemic is in part due to insufficient acknowledgment of and investment in animal health and welfare. A strong animal health system protects people through prevention, surveillance, diagnostics and treatment of animal diseases that can spread to humans, and potentially cause economic disaster.”
As the world starts to recover from the COVID-19, Brooke will increase our efforts to call on governments around the world to invest more in animal health and welfare.