[ad_1]
News |
Alarm and emergency measures in Denmark after 214 people were infected with mink with a mutated form of coronavirus. The problem could also affect farms in Italy: two in Lombardy would not meet the necessary hygiene standards and there would already be two cases according to Lav. That asks the government to prohibit the cultivation of minks in our country
“Mink farming is definitely prohibited in Italy and animals for fur production. “This is the appeal of Lav, the antivivisection league for the Italian government after the emergency that involved Denmark, where 214 people were infected of minks with a mutated form of coronavirus (12 in particular of a variant that would be less sensitive to antibodies). For this reason, the movement of 280 thousand people who live in the north of Jutland near the large intensive farms of these animals, in a country that is the second largest fur producer in the world after China. The measures were announced live on television by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, along with the shooting. of 17 million specimens.
It all started with intensive Danish agriculture in which thousands of minks live together in extremely limited spaces. Here the virus “finds an ideal environment to replicate itself, evolve and therefore undergo mutations”Explains Lav. The animals are found living together in very narrow cages: they have no room to move, climb or swim. This species of semi-aquatic carnivores is in these conditions to have to live even among the corpses of their peers. Being in a cage it is enough for an animal to become infected to transmit the virus to all their peers.
“These little carnivores have been questioned as an intermediate species that could carry the bat virus to humans”Sergio Rosati, professor of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Turin explained in the video that you can see above. “The conditions of intensive agriculture can amplify infections, in a tight promiscuity in which the virus could adapt to a new species and therefore be a source of contagion for us as well ”.
Added to this is the non-compliance with hygiene standards on some farms: there would be staff who enters the cages without any protection, no masks, no shoes, no overalls. But even the structures would not follow the safety rules that guarantee areas where it is possible to isolate between the interior and the exterior of the farm by disinfect and decontaminate.
This problem also affects Italy, which has more than 60 thousand minks. There are 8 farms: 3 in Lombardy between Brescia and Cremona, 2 in Veneto between Padua and Venice, as many in Emilia-Romagna and one in Abruzzo. According to Lav two Lombard farms did not respect hygiene standards with suffering animals and unprotected breeders. “At least two samples taken in August from mink from a single farm tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 and the information came only after our numerous and insistent appeals and our requests for access to documents,” he said. the Lav. However, no decision was made in this regard. “instead of starting a rigorous screening with diagnostic tests on all mink farms in Italy”.
“It makes sense to keep raising thousands of minks for fur production. Aware that it can lead to the further spread of the coronavirus even in a modified and potentially more dangerous form? ”Asks Simone Pavesi, head of Lav Fashion Area Animal Free. To your question we add another: the time has not come to close Mink farms, intended for the production of fur? There are those who are willing to do it like Massimiliano Filippi. “If the government decided to close the farms, I would close mine too,” he told us.But they should give compensation to convert the business”.
