With just a few days to go before the Chinese New Year, which people celebrate with an abundance of food and merrymaking, China’s government has launched a campaign to prevent virus infections caused by eating ‘strange food’ such as rats, snakes and bats.

Authorities in charge of food safety urged citizens Friday not to consume ‘wild animals’, and above all, not to ‘go over the top’, as it is common for people in certain parts of the country to come up with astonishing dishes, using animals not commonly found on the dinner table.

In the southern Canton province, for example, people savour preparations made from snakes and rats, which is why the authorities are urging everyone, particularly old people, children and pregnant women, to abstain from what it calls strange dishes.