OREANDA-NEWS  Ilya Gomyranov, an employee of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, said that the existence of a market for wild animals in Russia certainly has a bad effect on the conservation of species, but the likelihood that the transmission of COVID-19 occurs during such a transaction or keeping an animal house is negligible.

Bloomberg reported earlier that experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) investigating the source of the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, suggested that the wild animal trade in China could be the cause of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The source of the virus was bats, and the virus came to humans from civets.

Gomyranov believes that the likelihood that the coronavirus can be transmitted in Russia during the trade in wild animals is practically zero. For such a method of infection, it is necessary for a person to come into contact with a wild animal quite close, buy it and then keep it at home. It is much more likely that the coronavirus was brought to Russia by tourists from a trip or received from another person. But this fact does not negate the possibility of human infection with other zoonotic diseases from wild animals through close contact or while keeping an animal at home.

Gomyranov also clarified that bats are not actively traded in the wild animals market.