Rat breeders worry over their future

"Investigations of coronaviruses circulating on bamboo rat farms are underway to help us understand the risk of a virus spilling over on such farms."

She said commercial breeding facilities for bamboo rats are not enclosed areas, adding that there is always the risk of a virus being transmitted through the movement of animals, no matter how clean or efficiently managed a facility is.

"The emergence of a new pathogen is a rare event, but the spillover of viruses is now more common. Any increased opportunity for a virus to spill over from wildlife species, especially those raised commercially in close proximity to humans and consumed by them, represents an increased risk of such an event leading to the emergence of a new human pathogen," Fine said.