They carry a mutated strain of the coronavirus.

In Denmark one of the largest and most horrible massacres in animals breeding. Why pandemic from COVID-19 in fact more than 15 million will be killed visoni, which are all housed in more than one thousand one hundred “fur factories“From the Nordic country. This was announced by the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, at a press conference held on Wednesday 4 November.

More than a million minks, both of the European species (Mustela lutreola) and the American (Neovison vison), have already been slaughtered in countries such as Spain, the Netherlands and the United States, and several in Denmark had already been “purified”. farms. The reason lies in the fact that in these animals the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus it replicates perfectly in the respiratory tract, so many specimens have been infected by breeders and the pathogen has literally spread to these factories of death. Numerous animals have died from the infection. But the clean slate planned by the Danish government has a very specific reason.

Analyzing the genome of the coronavirus present in minks raised in Denmark, in fact, scientists from the Statens Serum Institut observed that the pathogen has begun to present mutations very dangerous, at the protein level protein S OR Spike. It is the umbrella-shaped structure that gives this group of viruses the “crown” shape when viewed under an electron microscope, and which is used to adhere to the receptor. ACE2 human cells, undo the cell wall like a pick, pour the viral RNA inside and replication, the process that underlies the infection called COVID-19. Danish scientists fear that this mutation could jeopardize the efficacy of vaccinations in trials, many of which are based on targeting this specific protein. To prevent the mutation from spreading even among us – the first “jumps” of return between the mink and the man would have arisen – the health authorities have decided to opt for the slaughter of all the bred specimens. The Danish army will also participate to carry out this massacre.

So far, the coronavirus has been detected in more than 200 farms in Jutland, and in 5 of them the mutation that worries the experts of the Nordic country has been found. It has already been detected in at least 12 people, where it shows a “reduced sensitivity to antibodies”As reported by the New York Times.

Danish authorities have already notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of the existence of the mutation, and many experts in virology and evolutionary biology are waiting for it. genetic sequences to analyze them and determine their real danger. The slaughter of minks in Denmark will stop the industry for years, it is one of the world’s leading exporters, but the hope of many is that these factories will never open again. In the Netherlands, the parliament decided to close them forever after having approved similar killings, even if they were significantly fewer.