Strict ban on wild animal trade imperative

Despite the absence of a final, definitive scientific verdict regarding the source of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus that claimed more than 700 lives worldwide in 2003, it was generally believed to have been first transmitted to humans from masked palm civets, which were identified as a host of the virus.

Amid the prevailing fear of SARS, there were loud appeals for tightened controls over trade in wildlife. Everyone agreed at the time it was a costly lesson to have learned.

Obviously more needed to be done than was.