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With order the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, ordered the suspension of mink farm activities throughout the Italian territory until the end of February 2021. This after Denmark’s decision to kill all the minks in the national territory after the discovery of some mutated coronavirus variants and go from animal to man.
The measure and criticism
The measure, informs the Ministry of Health in a note, adds the infection by Sars-CoV-2 in farmed minks to the list of infectious and diffusive diseases of animals subject to sanitary measures according to the “Veterinary Police Regulation (DPR 8 of February 1954, n.320) “and specifies that a new evaluation of the epidemiological status will be carried out at the end of February of next year.” It was decided to follow the principle of maximum precaution in compliance with the opinion issued by the Superior Council of Health ”, Specified the ministry.
Criticisms of LAV (Anti-Vivisection League) judging the limited provision: “The farms would have stopped anyway – specify the organization in a note -. Suspending activities until February is like banning the sale of umbrellas in the winter months. LAV has made public that in Italy, as early as August, the SARS-CoV-2 virus had entered at least one farm in Lombardy, in the province of Cremona, and has published videos documenting violations of biosecurity regulations.
Updated data
The slaughter of millions of minks is still ongoing on Danish farms, but it is In the Statens serumStitute of Denmark, the Ministry of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, declares that the dreaded variant called “cluster 5” would no longer be in circulation. No cases with variant 5 of the cluster mink have been detected since September 15, as they detected. The same percentage of infected people of a mink variant (around 170 have been mapped) keeps decreasing. The new data from the sequenced samples shows a 5% proportion of cases of mutated coronavirus in humans (derived from mink) at week 45 compared to week 44 (with 6%).
The variant was not so dangerous
An article on Nature points out the variant “cluster 5″, which led to the decision to kill the mink, because the 12 people infected with the new form of the virus, although not seriously ill, had a low reactivity in the formation of antibodies: after the ” analysis of genetic and experimental data of the cluster, scientists said mutations are not particularly worrisome, because there is little evidence that it will allow the virus to spread more easily between people, make it more lethal, or compromise treatments and vaccines.
Farms put us at risk
The variant is not as dangerous as feared, therefore, but farms the minks (and in general the intensive ones) are the same: «They are a virological bomb, with thousands of animals in a cage, stacked up, these viruses replicate continuously. The more they replicate, the more mutations can be generated that can become “winners” for the virus itself and unfavorable for us, “he explained to Messenger Service Sergio Abrignani, immunologist, tenured professor of General Pathology at the State University of Milan. A huge viral source that can easily infect people and in Danish regions with affected mink farms, the number of people with Covid-19 has increased dramatically. And there are about three times as many minks as people in Denmark.
Tensions in Denmark
Therefore, the assassination was deemed necessary and in Denmark should be completed by Thursday. This measure has created a lot discontent in the scandinavian country which is the world’s leading producer of mink fur. The export of mink skins, especially to Asian markets, generates around one billion dollars a year, more than 840 million euros, a substantial part of national exports, and involves a thousand companies; some 6,000 jobs would now be at risk, second Copenhagen fur, the auction house where the world leather market is developed. Following criticism, Agriculture Minister Mogens Jensen resigned, but sacrifices continue.
Mink production is already banned in the UK and Austria; in Germany it has been eliminated and Belgium, France and Norway are also on that path. Animals have been euthanized in the Netherlands, the US and France following the detection of mutated versions of the coronavirus circulating among animals.
November 23, 2020 (change November 23, 2020 | 12:38)
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