[ad_1]
Six countries, including Denmark, Spain and the United States, have so far reported cases of covid-19 in hatcheries of minksthe World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday.
“To date, six countries, namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States have reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 in mink farms to the world organization for animal health “, indicates the WHO in a statement.
The statement comes after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced Wednesday the removal of more than 15 million minks in the country.
According to Frederiksen, a mutated version of SARS-CoV-2 could threaten the efficacy of a future vaccine, after this virus was transmitted by those animals to 12 persons.
The mutation of a virus is something banal and often without consequences, according to the scientific community. But in the case of this strain, called “Cluster 5”, according to the first studies implies a lower efficacy of human antibodies, which threatens the efficacy of a vaccine against covid-19.
“This variant, called the ‘cluster 5’ variant, presents a combination of mutations or changes that had not been previously observed”, assures the WHO, and emphasizes that “the implications of the changes identified in this variant have not yet been well understood”.
Preliminary results, says the WHO, indicate that this particular variant associated with mink exhibits a “Moderately reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies”.
“Although it is thought that the virus is ancestrally associated with bats, the origin of the virus and the intermediate transmitter (s) of SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been identified,” recalls the WHO.
[ad_2]
