Once scientists identified the masked palm civet - a ferret-like creature - as the possible source of SARS, his PR prospects plummeted.

A virus, 99 percent similar and carried by the animal, is believed to have been passed onto humans through the exotic restaurant trade in the south of China. It caused one of the biggest ever global health scares.

Chinese government officials have been gathering the know-how of experts to strengthen management and quarantine measures on wild animals to curb the possibility of other diseases being passed onto humans.

"More stricter supervision and quarantine measures must be taken immediately on the producing, marketing, and processing of those wild animals," Jiang Zhigang said yesterday.

Jiang, president of the Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has returned from a brain-storming session organized by the State Forestry Administration.

The civet and many other species of wild creatures including snakes, are traded in China, especially in Guangdong Province where the first case of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) was found last November.

Many types of wild animals are bred in captivity to meet the increasing market demand.

There are about 600 masked palm civet breeding farms with 40,000 civets on the Chinese mainland, said Jiang.

He urged government departments, such as the State Forestry Administration, to clarify exactly what types of wild animals can be farmed.

Meanwhile, standards involving breeding methods, sanitation and quarantine need to be drawn up to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, which can live both in wild animals and humans, from being passed onto people, said Jiang.

The government has launched a nationwide inspection of masked palm civets and almost all farms have been told to segregate the animals while further investigations are conducted.

As Beijing restaurants are not in the habit of serving masked palm civets, the most usual place to spot the little creatures are in cages in the city's zoos. "There are nine masked palm civets in our zoo," said Ye Mingxia, who works at the Beijing Zoo, "but they have been moved out from the exhibition area since last Saturday and are now under quarantine."

(China Daily May 28, 2003)