Food safety issues related to wildlife have not been taken seriously from SARS to COVID-19.

17 years after the outbreak of SARS, the 2019-nCoV broke out in December 2019. It's an unprecedented huge challenge and disaster for people all over the world. According to Web of Science database, The author found that 95,724 virology papers have been published in the past 17 years, 68,632 of which are supported by fund (71.7%). Meanwhile, 50,567 papers related to food safety have been published in the past 17 years, 28,165 of which are supported by fund (55.7%%). It seems that people's safety and global stability are greatly guaranteed. However, whether SARS or 2019-nCoV, scientists were targeting wildlife, the author found that only 515 studies on food safety related to wildlife have been published worldwide in the past 17 years. After SARS, the whole world did not pay enough attention to food safety related to wildlife.

According to the World Health Organization report, SARS broke out in 2002, affecting 29 countries/territories/areas, with more than 8000 confirmed cases worldwide. It has a huge impact on the world (https://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/). 17 years later, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) broke out in December 2019. By April 18, 2020, it has affected the whole world, with more than 2 million confirmed cases and more than 140,000 deaths. At present, it is difficult to estimate the final global impact of the COVID-19. It's an unprecedented huge challenge and disaster for people all over the world.

Using search terms [(WC=(virology)) AND DOCUMENT TYPES: (Article) Indexes = SCI- EXPANDED Timespan = 2003–2019] in Web of Science (WoS) database, the author found that 95,724 virology papers have been published in the past 17 years, 68,632 of which are supported by fund (71.7%). Meanwhile, using search terms [(TS=(Food Safety) OR TS=(Food security)) AND DOCUMENT TYPES: (Article) Indexes = SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI Timespan = 2003–2019] in WoS database, the author found that 50,567 papers related to food safety have been published in the past 17 years, 28,165 of which are supported by fund (55.7%%). These two data are encouraging. Lots of scientists have made great efforts in virus research and food safety research. And they were strongly supported by governments. It seems that people's safety and global stability are greatly guaranteed.

However, whether SARS or COVID-19, scientists were targeting wildlife (Guan et al., 2003; Lu et al., 2020). Some wild animals, such as bats, snakes and pangolins, had become the targets of suspicion (Zhou et al., 2020; Ji et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). Using search terms [(TS=(wild animal AND Food security) OR TS=(wild animal AND Food Safety) OR TS=(wildlife AND Food security) OR TS=(wildlife AND Food Safety)) AND DOCUMENT TYPES: (Article) Indexes = SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI Timespan = 2003–2019] in WoS database, the author found that only 515 studies on food safety related to wildlife have been published worldwide in the past 17 years. The major contributions to the total output came primarily from five countries: the USA (194), England (81), Canada (52), Australia (37) and Danmark (37). And 21 articles contributed by China, ranking 10th. For 17 years of academic production around the world, how small these data are. After SARS, the whole world did not pay enough attention to food safety related to wildlife. Even if the COVID-19 does not break out, those wild animals full of virus will bring other similar hazards to the world.

Now the COVID-19 is not over, only doctors, nurses and relevant professionals are fighting against the virus, others are helpless. However, when the epidemic is over, people should not relax but think about how to prevent similar disasters from happening again. Previously, people called for the protection of wild animals on the basis of love and morality, while protecting some rare animals, which is stipulated by law. Now the situation is different. We should carry out a comprehensive and systematic new policy on all kinds of wildlife and food control. Governments and scientists should no longer ignore food safety issues related to wildlife again.

Finally, the author thinks that we should get a warning from the fact that we have achieved a lot in virology and food safety, but food safety issues related to wildlife has become an omission. Every country has been making huge investment in many aspects, such as military, education, communication, bank and so on. Just because you have achieved a lot and invested a lot of money doesn't mean you won't be negligent. For the sake of a better future for mankind, workers in all fields should work together to catch up on the problems that have been ignored.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.