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A preprint has been issued early this year following a collaboration between research teams from the South China Agricultural University, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) and the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). They studied the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the ASFV ongoing pandemic in China on the SARS-Cov-2 emergence in the Wuhan province. Their hypothesis is that the introduction of ASFV in China in 2018 has led to major disruptions in the pork market, inducing price increases, leading to alternative sources of meat and unusual animal and meat movements often involving wildlife. This highly increased spillover opportunities for zoonotic viruses such as SARS-Cov-2 in a province like Wuhan where pork meat shortage led to changes in consumption behaviour and more contacts between wildlife animals and livestock as well as humans.

Link to the preprint: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202102.0590/v1