VANCOUVER—As researchers work to understand the global coronavirus outbreak, a new figure has been drawn into the conversation: the pangolin.

Pangolins are small creatures covered in scales that resemble artichoke leaves. The highly endangered species, also known as the scaly anteater, is one of the most trafficked animals on earth. That’s because of black market demand for its meat and scales as a delicacy and as a component in traditional Asian and African medicines.

When the animals are frightened, they curl up into little balls — making them easy prey for poachers.

Bats are a likely original source of the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 600 people and sickened more than 31,000, but scientists have not figured out how the disease could have jumped from bats to humans.

China’s official Xinhua news agency on Friday said scientists from South China Agricultural University discovered that the genome sequence of the coronavirus strain in pangolins was 99 per cent identical to that of infected patients.

The research paper has not yet been published, and scientists in Britain and Hong Kong have called for caution before acting on the announcement.

Here is everything you didn’t realize you needed to know about pangolins.

Why do people eat these small animals, which are covered in hard scales, as food and medicine?

Some advocates of traditional Chinese medicine think the hard scales of the pangolin, when ground down into a powder and mixed with other ingredients, can treat everything from arthritis, to lactation difficulties, to acne, asthma and liver cancer.

Pangolin scales are actually made of keratin, the same material that’s in human fingernails, and there is no evidence of any therapeutic or medical applications.

Perhaps because of the world-wide scarcity of the animals, pangolin meat is considered a delicacy in some parts of southern China and Vietnam.

And in some parts of Africa, including Ghana, pangolin scales and bones are used in traditional medicine as well as spiritual rituals, according to a 2015 study.

How big is the underground smuggling industry?

Banned since 2017 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a staggering quantity of pangolin products is still being traded around the world.

Networks originate “from West African bushmeat markets in Cameroon and Nigeria to middlemen and traffickers in Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and to mainland China, home to most of the demand spurring the global trade,” according to the South China Morning Post.

Last year, Hong Kong officials seized a record eight tonnes of pangolin scales from a shipping container, which originated from Nigeria and was bound for Vietnam.

Hong Kong officials are trying to stop the well-connected city from acting as a hub for endangered species trafficking in Asia. In May 2018, the government increased the maximum jail term for trafficking and possession of endangered species from two to 10 years, but this hasn’t deterred smugglers eyeing huge profits from the illegal trade. Forty grams of roasted pangolin powder can fetch $86-$110 Cdn.

Last March, mainland China cracked down on nine pangolin smuggling gangs and rounded up 34 suspected smugglers, but the demand in the country remains high, customs officials reported.

How commonly is pangolin found in traditional Chinese medicine in Canada?

“Folk medicine doctors” may have used pangolin in the past in Canada, but with new regulations overseeing the traditional Chinese medicine industry in Ontario and British Columbia, and a global ban on the pangolin trade, its use by regulated Canadian practitioners is likely non-existent, said Pierre Chen, an instructor at the Canadian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Mississauga.

Talking to the Star, Chen stopped to consult a modern textbook and found no references to pangolin. Only when he flipped through an older textbook did he find a citation. According to the text, pangolins’ scales are the valuable part. Once the animal is killed, it is placed in hot water to remove the scales, he said.

The scales are considered a “cooling” herb and, according to the old text, they’re beneficial for helping with abscesses or boils on the skin, as well as for promoting lactation and treating joint pain.

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Are illegal pangolin products making their way to Canada?

If pangolin scales are making their way into Canada, they’re being smuggled in — likely from underground breeders in countries such as Vietnam and Laos, Chen said.

Last summer, the Canada Border Services Agency said officers at the Montréal-Trudeau airport intercepted undeclared pangolin meat in suitcases on two occasions.

Joanna Chiu is a Vancouver-based reporter covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu

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