Some of the first COVID-19 infections were linked to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. Photo: Simon Song. According to the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong, China), a study by scientists from West China Normal University and Oxford University recently shed light on the wildlife trade. in Wuhan City, which has long been considered a potential source of the spread of COVID-19. In the most detailed record of the wildlife trade yet to be released, scientists estimate that more than 47,000 wild animals were sold in the city’s markets in the two-and-a-half years before the outbreak. disease outbreak. According to the study, up to 38 animals were sold at 17 stores in four markets in Wuhan city between May 2017 and November 2019. These include mammals such as civets, ferrets and raccoons, which are known to be susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, along with squirrels, badgers, foxes and porcupines, as well as birds and cows close. However, the researchers did not find any evidence that bats or pangolins – considered two sources of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission – were commercially available. Seven of the wildlife shops are at the Huanan seafood wholesale market, which has been linked to several COVID-19 cases in late 2019. On average, about 1,100 animals are transported throughout the city’s markets each month, in a trade that the researchers describe as qualifying for disease spread and “essentially any legal”. “Almost all the animals for sale are alive, caged, crammed and in poor condition. Most of the shops offer butchering services, which are performed on site, which does not guarantee food hygiene or animal welfare,” the researchers said. Huanan Seafood Market, Wuhan, closed last January. Photo: Simon Song/SCMP Veterinarian David Hayman, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team visiting Wuhan in early 2021, said the study confirmed that live wild mammals were for sale. in Wuhan, which the WHO team suspected, but could not verify. The study also provides clear evidence that several species that are susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been “continuously marketed,” Hayman said. The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 epidemic is still unknown. Scientists as well as governments in many countries have called for further investigation into whether the virus came from the wild or leaked from a laboratory, a theory that China has repeatedly denied. The wildlife trade has been identified as a possible route of transmission of the virus, which is believed to have originated in bats. Most of the first cases were linked to the Huanan Seafood Market, and a subsequent analysis found that more than half of the first cases in December 2019 were in contact with this market or markets. other in the city. However, no link was found between commercially available animals and the virus. Earlier, a report by the WHO team, based on information from Chinese authorities, said that only snakes, crocodiles and salamanders, which are less likely to contract SARS-CoV-2, were sold directly. continue at the market at the end of December 2019. “It is important that mammals that are alive and being sold in markets in Wuhan just before the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded, are very contagious with the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” said Daniel Lucey. , an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University Medical Center (USA), said. Meanwhile, Zhou Zhao-min, co-author of the study, hopes the newly published data can be useful in tracing the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Weasel coffee or mink coffee is the name of a special coffee, a beverage that is ranked among the rarest in the world.

Experts in this article: Comprehension Exam, PhD student at Huodong University of Science and Technology, China.

Reviewer of this article: Professor Ph.D. Liu Shaoi, Associate Director of the Research Center for Food and Drug Administration at the East China University of Science and Technology, PhD in Food Science from Pennsylvania State University, Postdoc at Kansas State University, United States States.

This type of coffee is found in Indonesia, on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. The word Kopi Luwak is used to refer to a type of seed which is eaten by the spotted civet that eats the fruit of the coffee and then disposed of the feces, dried and processed.

Although the Vietnamese language mentions weasels, the animals involved are civets, not weasels. Meanwhile the name Kopi Luwak comes from the Indonesian word kopi meaning coffee. Luwak is the name of an area on the Java island, as well as the name of a civet that resides there.

The spotted palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus belongs to the Viverridae family), which is scattered in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and southern China.

In Vietnam, civets are raised to make this special coffee.

If you’ve ever seen some shows run by PETA and BBC, the stories behind mink coffee are told in great detail. Some cups of mink feces coffee can even be sold for the equivalent of 64 million VND / kg.

Why is there such expensive coffee? Is there any difference in nutrition compared to regular coffee? We will analyze the relevant factors and understand more about the nature of weasel coffee.

Is weasel coffee really made from mink feces?

First of all, the animal that actually produces the marketed mink coffee is not a weasel, which is called a “civet”, or civet coffee in English. It is a very cute animal.

However, mink feces coffee does not use mink waste to directly brew coffee, but it goes through a more elaborate processing process than regular coffee.

The essence of weasel coffee stems from the civet that likes to eat the coffee cherry, the fruit of the coffee tree and the seed in the cherry coffee is the coffee bean that is still fresh on the tree.

In the dung released by the civet, the beans are still intact, but they all undergo a unique fermentation in the civet’s digestive system, which saves a lot of coffee making.

After that, they are picked up and the civet dung is cleaned, dried, and directly roasted to get the finished mink coffee product.

So when it comes to your brewing stage, the civet’s manure has long been removed, and what you use is an ordinary cup of coffee with a slightly unique and very clean taste.

Is the nutritional value of mink coffee high?

According to some scientific studies, the Indonesian civet’s digestive system will destroy the protein in the coffee beans, reducing the bitterness of coffee and increasing the roundness of coffee.

The beans generally undergo fermentation of the outer shell, in the intestines of the civet special bacteria that provide a unique fermentation environment, thereby making the weasel coffee flavor unique. unique, thicker and softer.

The assessment of the modern coffee industry is: Weasel coffee is poor quality coffee

Weasel-based coffee is dubbed the second most expensive coffee in the world, mainly due to the hype of a commercial dealer who packaged a product too ordinary and inflated it to “premium”.

After the animals eat the coffee fruit, the undigested seeds are fermented and then passed out of the body through the intestinal tract. These “natural” processed beans are initially collected from the soil and processed by farmers and kept for themselves “to enjoy”.

But after purposefully requiring commercialization, packaging and beautification by the media, it has now become a specialty drink. The reason that people fall into the trap of traders is nothing but the lack of awareness about high quality authentic coffee.

What flavor of mink coffee?

To describe the taste of mink feces coffee with the words “great aroma” and “masterpiece” will only explain the legend of mink feces coffee.

According to expert Lilly Kubota, communications director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), wrote an article in early 2011 and listed three conclusions:

1, The best mink feces coffee is not as good as the specialty coffee with the lowest score.

2, Genuine Weasel Feces Coffee is produced from a civet locked in a cage.

3.Most of what consumers can buy is counterfeit, because real goods are rare.

Coffee taster Stephen Vicks has published a coffee test report on the coffee website saying, “Two out of the four samples smelled of yeast and phenol respectively. it smells of alcohol, raw oysters, and has a rough feeling “.

It can be seen that consumers buy mink coffee not to buy quality, but to buy advertising gimmicks.

How should we treat mink coffee?

Due to the scarcity of commercial goods, mink coffee has become a sought-after commodity in the international market and is considered a “golden” coffee variety.

Now, for-profit mink coffee traders are no longer satisfied with the small yields that are freely sought from the forest, so in order to increase yields, they have industrially produced by imprisonment. civets are just for feeding the coffee berries and taking their droppings.

But the civet is actually an extremely free-loving creature that has gone on a hunger strike and opposed this brutal captivity, but traders are not afraid to torture the civet for manure in order to obtain a pricey civet coffee. high.

According to the British Daily Mail, in some parts of the Philippines and Indonesia, in order to obtain high-priced civet coffee beans, people ruthlessly locked civets into a cramped and dirty cage, causing the civet. Huong was extremely irritable and and almost depressed.

They are fed large amounts of coffee fruit per day to produce more coffee beans.

The civet faces serious health problems due to lack of vitamins and other nutrients.

Actually, it is just a cup of coffee, but it is the civet’s destiny

The West discovered and promoted mink feces coffee for the first time, and they are now fighting it.

In fact, compared to ourselves as humans, is this civet’s lifestyle synonymous with life imprisonment for free-loving creatures?

And what did the civets do wrong to be treated like this? That’s what we need to know about mink coffee, or to be exact, the coffee made from civet dung.

• According to The Paper, Weixin