Coronavirus: Spain orders the slaughter of almost 100,000 minks

Nearly 100,000 minks on a farm in northeast Spain will be euthanized after many of them tested positive for coronavirus, health authorities say.

The outbreak in the province of Aragon was discovered after the wife of an agricultural employee contracted the virus in May.

Since then, her husband and six other farm workers have tested positive for the disease.

The mink, bred for its precious fur, was isolated and closely monitored after the workers became infected.

But when tests conducted on July 13 showed that 87% of the mink was infected, health authorities ordered the 92,700 semi-aquatic animals to be slaughtered.

Authorities said financial compensation will be awarded to the company that manages the farm, located in a town 200 km (125 miles) east of Madrid.

Along with Madrid and Catalonia, Aragon is one of the coronavirus hot spots in Spain, where more than 250,000 infections and 28,000 deaths have been recorded since the start of the pandemic.

• Fear of the increase in diseases from animals to humans.
• Why do we spread more animal diseases?

Joaquín Olona, ​​Aragon’s agriculture minister, told reporters on Thursday that the decision to sacrifice the mink was made “to avoid the risk of human transmission.”

Olona stressed that it was not clear whether “transmission was possible from animals to humans and vice versa.”

But one possibility, he said, was that an infected farm worker unintentionally transmitted the disease to animals. Another unsubstantiated theory was that animals transmitted the disease to workers, he said.

What do we know about transmission from animal to human?

Studies have shown that the virus is contagious among certain animals, including cats and dogs.

However, less is understood about the possibility of animal-to-human transmission, with researchers studying the risk.

There have been other cases of workers testing positive for coronavirus on mink farms in Denmark and the Netherlands, both major producers of the animal’s fur.

• Called to close ‘dirty fur trade’ after mink cases

In the Netherlands, tens of thousands of mink have been slaughtered in the past few months after outbreaks were discovered on farms across the country.

The move came after the Dutch government said it had found two suspected cases of farm workers infected by the animals in May.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the infections could be the “first known cases of animal-to-human transmission” since the coronavirus pandemic began in China.

At a press conference in June, WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove said, “There were individuals who infected mink, people who infected mink, and some of these minks, in turn, infected some people.”

“We are learning about what this really means in terms of transmission and what role they play [mink] you can play, “said Dr. van Kerkhove.