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Denmark, the world’s leading producer of mink fur, will slaughter around 15 million specimens raised in its territory due to a COVID-19 mutation that has already spread to 12 people, which threatens the effectiveness of a future vaccine for humans .
“The virus mutated through mink could pose a risk that future vaccines (against the coronavirus) will not work as they should”Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said during a news conference with health officials on Wednesday.
“All the minks have to be killed,” he added, representing between 15 and 17 million animals, he said.
A virus mutation is normal, and a mutation doesn’t mean it will behave differently, according to scientists. Furthermore, determining the specific consequences of a mutation is complex.
Although this mutation does not aggravate the complications caused by the coronavirus in humans, lThe Danish authorities consider that it is characterized by a lower efficacy of human antibodies, which threatens the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
“Continuing to raise these minks would pose a very high risk to public health, both in Denmark and abroad,” warned the head of the Danish Infectious Disease Control Authority (SSI), Kåre Mølbak.
The mutated virus detected in mink “does not respond as much to antibodies as the normal virus. Antibodies always have an effect, but not as effective,” he said.
According to Health Minister Magnus Heunicke, “Research has shown that mutations can affect current projects for a vaccine against COVID-19.”
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“It is a threat to the development of vaccines against the coronavirus, so we must carry out a national campaign,” he insisted.
This mutation was identified on five different farms. The 12 cases of human transmission of the mutated virus were detected in North Jutland (west), where the majority of breeding sites are concentrated. However, they are no longer carriers, according to SSI.
“We do not want to be the cause of a new pandemic”
Denmark is the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, an activity that has made the fortune of more than 1,000 farms in the small Nordic kingdom.
After the first coronavirus cases were detected in mink, the government launched a vast mink culling campaign this summer in infected hatcheries, which was extended in October due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in numerous hatcheries.
By Monday, authorities had already slaughtered more than 1.2 million animals.
The government promised compensation to the breeders. The sector employs some 6,000 people in this country of 5.8 million people.
“It is a black day for all of us and for Denmark,” said Tage Pedersen, president of the Association of Mink Breeders, in a statement.
“Of course we do not want to be the cause of a new pandemic … but the government’s decision is a disaster for our industry and for Denmark. It is in fact a permanent closure and liquidation of the fur industry. “, said.
More restrictions
A good student of the management of the pandemic with 729 deaths so far, Denmark faces a sharp increase in cases and has tightened its measures since the end of October.
Tracking the new cases in the region made it possible to identify a mink farm as the source of the contamination, according to authorities.
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Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been several suspected cases of transmission of mink to humans, particularly in the Netherlands, where more than a million of these mammals have been killed.
In Spain minks were also slaughtered in July, but there was no national campaign.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “in some cases, minks infected by humans transmitted the virus to other people. They were the first reported cases of transmission from the animal to man,” the institution explained to AFP, without comment. in detail about the mutation in Denmark.
According to the police, the animals must be slaughtered “as soon as possible”, but no deadlines were indicated.
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