eliminated from the market...cleared of animal products

[GoodTaste]

“Of course, this is not direct evidence,” says Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, “but this is the best we can get now, because all the animals have been eliminated from the market and we don’t have swabs of the animals.”
............

The swabs were collected in early 2020, after the market was shut down and cleared of animal products.

Source: Nature

I don't quite understand the word eliminated here. It sounds to me to mean "no longer allowed to sell in the market". I am not sure.
What does it exactly mean?

 

[tedmc]

That's presumably about Covid-19 virus which was believed to have been spread from animals to humans in the Wuhan market . The animals (considered as "products" sold for consumption) have since been cleared from the market after swabs for scientific studies were taken.

 

[GoodTaste]

So in your opinion, "eliminated" exactly means "cleared of" there?

 

[tedmc]

Yes, "cleared" or "removed".