Farmers in China are being offered cash to quit breeding exotic animals as pressure grows to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade that has been blamed for the coronavirus outbreak.
Authorities have for the first time pledged to buy out breeders in an attempt to curb the practice, animal rights activists say.
China has in recent months banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading to humans, but the trade remains legal for other purposes - including research and traditional medicine.
The deadly coronavirus - first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan - is widely believed to have passed from bats to people before spreading worldwide.
Two central provinces have outlined details of a buyout programme to help farmers switch to alternative livelihoods.
Hunan on Friday set out a compensation scheme to persuade breeders to rear other livestock or produce tea and herbal medicines.
Authorities will evaluate farms and inventories and offer a one-off payment of 120 yuan ($16) per kilogram of rat snake, king ratsnake and cobra, while a kilogram of bamboo rat will fetch 75 yuan.
A civet cat - the animal believed to have carried Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to humans in another coronavirus outbreak nearly two decades ago - would fetch 600 yuan.
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