RAT RACKET

A Beijing journalist contacted the 27-year-old bamboo rat breeder after Chinese health authorities announced that wild animals, including bamboo rats, were suspected vectors of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.　

The call came as a heads-up for Xie. The next day, he said that forestry officials visited his farm in Dingle County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, informing him the sale of bamboo rats was not allowed and only workers would be allowed on the premises.　

A month later, on February 24, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, passed a resolution that banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. 　

Xie said he worried the resolution would take down China’s entire bamboo rat breeding industry. 

While breeders export to Southeast Asia, domestic demand makes up most of the market. Liu Kejun, Xie’s technical adviser and senior engineer at Guangxi Animal Husbandry Research Institute, said that Guangxi is home to 100,000 rat breeders and 18 million bamboo rats valued at 2 billion yuan (US$283m), accounting for 70 percent of the national market.　

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) is drafting a white list that would exempt some animals from the ban, forcing policymakers to choose between economic gain and public health.　

To cut costs during the outbreak, Xie fired four of his seven employees. It takes seven hours to feed his 10,000 rats every day, which costs more than 1,000 yuan (US$141). Native to China and Southeast Asia, the rodents can reach up to 25 centimeters long and mainly eat the roots and shoots of bamboo and sugarcane, among other plants. Crop farmers consider them pests.　

In 2006, Xie bought 40 pairs of young rats for 14,000 yuan (US$2,000). By 2007, he had bred over 1,000 rats when there were few rat breeders in his county. A female rat, or doe, could average 10 to 12 pups each year.　

Liu Kejun told our reporter that in 2002, market demand was low. Since 2013, however, prices have soared to nearly 140 yuan (US$20) per kilogram. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a huge market demand for bamboo rat meat. 　

Low in fat and cholesterol, bamboo rat meat is a delicacy in China’s southern and southwestern regions. Were it not for the outbreak, Xie estimated that he would have seen sales of 4 million yuan (US$565,000) in 2020.　

Xie grows a field of sugarcane for his rats. As rats seldom drink water, sugarcane and grass are also their main sources for hydration. “I planted sugarcane a month later than I did last year to wait and see if the policy would change,” he told NewsChina.　

Since the outbreak, forestry bureau officials have visited Xie’s farm several times to check if rats were being sold. Xie said he has 2,000 fully grown rats, but no buyers. Xie still goes to his farm every day, eager to pay back his loans taken out with a 5 percent interest rate.　

“In rural areas, there are no other choices for farmers except tilling the land and breeding livestock,” he said.　

Liu told our reporter that impoverished families make up 18 percent of rat breeders in Guangxi. Roughly 20,000 people in Guangxi have worked their way out of poverty through farming bamboo rats.　

“The local government often says that better-off families should take more responsibility to help impoverished families,” Xie said. Since 2015, Xie has helped more than 132 rat breeders get started by providing them with young bamboo rats and technical assistance. 　

Liu Kejun said breeding pays off relatively quickly. On average, he added, a 3-kilogram rat fetches between 150 yuan to 200 yuan (US$21-28) at a cost of around 50 yuan (US$7). In comparison, cows only bring 20-25 percent in returns on average. 　

Operations are also cheap and relatively easy to start up. Rats rarely become ill, which saves farmers from expensive vaccines or antibiotics. Many elderly residents and others with handicaps have taken up rat breeding to supplement their income, Liu said.　

Xie Fujie’s home is 70 kilometers from the county center, an area dominated by grapefruit groves. Trees bear fruit three or four years after planting, after which they produce fruit annually. Rats, however, reproduce several times a year.　

On March 22, officials from the Guangxi poverty alleviation office visited Xie’s farm. “They came to check on how the local people are making a living since rats are not allowed to be sold, as well as the ban’s impact on poverty alleviation efforts,” he said.　

Liang Qiubo, head of Guilin Qiubo Bamboo Rat Company, said that raising rats is easier than raising poultry, pigs and sheep. “For example, poultry are susceptible to the bird flu, but bamboo rats are not prone to disease,” he told NewsChina. 　

China’s MARA has already released poultry farming standards that include facilities, disinfection and vaccines. “There are no national standards for raising bamboo rats,” said Xie, which he said is the biggest challenge for rat breeders. “Guangxi recently released local standards but they are not strictly implemented.”　

According to an article by Peking University’s Shan Shui Conservation Center, during quarantines of livestock, third-party institutions inspect feed, the environment, facilities, workers and veterinary drugs to determine whether they pose any health risks. But inspections of wild animals are a greater challenge because it is difficult to determine exactly what they have eaten. 　

China’s Wildlife Protection Law divides wild animals into three categories: animals under State protection, animals under protection of local governments and animals with special economic, social or scientific significance. Bamboo rats belong to the last category. Before the ban on the consumption of wild animals on February 24, the Wildlife Protection Law had no prohibitive provisions on the consumption of bred bamboo rats.　

According to Zhao Xiang, a professor with the Shan Shui Conservation Center, there are two prerequisites for wild animals to be on the white list: There must be a complete system for quarantine in place to guarantee public safety, and farmed animals will not negatively affect their species living in the wild. 　

Ma Yong, deputy secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, argued that security and breeding technologies are crucial for bamboo rats to be on the white list. He told NewsChina that mass bamboo rat breeding has only been around for 30 years in China and there are few clinical studies on how it affects wild populations. 　

“From the perspective of public health, it is unlikely that quarantine standards on bamboo rats will be released soon,” he said.　

Liu Yongfu, head of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a news conference in March that government agencies are working to distinguish which animals are safe to breed. Farms that are breeding animals on the banned list, he argued, would be shut down and compensated to change businesses.　

Xie told NewsChina that if he were to take up pig farming, he would need at least 800,000 yuan (US$114,000) to start up his operation. “Coupled with the loans, I’d have to work for 16 years before I could turn a profit,” he said.