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Denmark, the world’s largest mink breeder, has said it will kill more than 15 million animals amid fears that a Covid-19 mutation from animal to human could jeopardize future vaccines.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Matthew Fredericksen said 12 people had already been infected with the mutated virus and that mink is now considered a public health hazard. “The mutated virus could jeopardize the effectiveness of a future vaccine,” he said, adding that the army, police and national emergency service would mobilize to help slaughter farms that would wipe out the entire Danish population. .
Reuters reported that the Danish Health Minister said that about half of the 783 infected people in northern Denmark, which is home to large numbers of farmers, had infections coming from farms. News of the killing of mink due to the Covid mutation has been circulating the world for a few hours now, while Reuters reports that health authorities have identified strains of the virus in humans and minks that show reduced sensitivity to antibodies. “We have a great responsibility to our own people, but with the mutation that has been found, we have an even greater responsibility to the rest of the world,” he said.
The findings, which were reported to the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, were based on laboratory tests from the State Serum Institute, the Danish authority on infectious diseases. The head of the WHO emergency program, Mike Ryan, called for a full scientific investigation into the “complex problem” of humans infecting mink, which then infects humans.
Denmark is the world’s largest mink fur producer with 15-17 million animals on about 1,100 farms. The latest figures from the authorities reportedly indicate that Covid-19 cases have been found on more than 200 farms.
Reactions to the decision to euthanize all minks.
“It’s a shock. They will kill all the minks in Denmark.” They are talking about the risk of a Covid-19 mutation and how it could be transmitted to humans and possibly affect a future vaccine, “said a spokesman for a fur management company. in Finland The commercial value of the mink population in Denmark is estimated at between € 350 million and € 400 million this year.
“What we really have to do is completely do away with farming and retrain the breeders,” said Birgitte Damm, a veterinarian and policy consultant at the NGO Animal Protection Denmark.
Speaking from Amsterdam, Dr. Joanna Swabe, director of public affairs for Humane Society International / Europe, said: “While it is not a ban on fur farming, this measure marks the end of the suffering of millions of animals confined in small cages. of furs in fur farms only for the purposes in a trivial way that no one needs. “We congratulate the Prime Minister of Denmark for her decision to take such a necessary and scientific step to protect Danish citizens from the deadly coronavirus.”
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