Fear that the vaccine will weaken – VG

On Monday, authorities came out and said they have to kill the animals to reduce the risk of spreading the infection to the community. According to the AP news agency, this is at least 2.5 million minks, while Danmarks Radio estimates that there are about 1.5 million.

According to the Danish Food and Veterinary Administration, the infection has been detected in 76 mink farms and the number is increasing daily. The audit has started to kill mink on confirmed infected farms, as well as mink within a 7.8 kilometer radius of confirmed infected mink farms.

– The Statens Serum Institut and the University of Copenhagen have analyzed the risk of infection in mink farms. The figures show that the distance between the first 20 infected farms was within a radius of 7.8 kilometers, says the administration’s emergency manager, Nikolas Kühn Hove.

– The breeders have ended up in a terrible situation, so we have a great understanding. But with the speed at which the infection spreads between farms, we must kill the mink as quickly as possible, to prevent the infection from spreading to more farms and, in the worst case, to humans, he adds.

Fear of contagion to society

He further claims that they do not know enough about how and why the virus spreads in mink farms, and what is the risk of further infection in society.

– The fact that the virus has been detected in mink indicates that the animals are infected by humans. At the same time, we know that minks are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, says Kühn Hove.

– We know that the virus has mutated and we know that mink can infect humans in the same way that humans can infect mink. We also know that there are more than 150 working mink farms that are infected, and that there are varieties of mink in the Jutland community, says Anders Fomsgaard, head of virus research and development at the Statens Serum Institut, which corresponds to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. , to Danmarks Radio.

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Peter Ben Embarek, an expert on foods and diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans, the so-called zoonoses, at WHO, believes that the virus has adapted to mink in the same way that it has adapted to humans, writes Danish TV 2 .

According to the channel, this is the reason the disease can be transmitted from mink to humans.

– The data we have says that there is a significantly higher risk of infection if you work with minks, feed them, care for them and clean the cages, than if you are, for example, a nurse or a doctor, Kåre Mølbak of the Statens Serum Institut told beginning. October according to TV 2.

– May weaken an upcoming vaccine

Now, the authorities’ horror scenario is that a vaccine can be weakened as a result of mutations in the virus that occur in mink farms.

– The concern is that the mutated virus, which has infected the mink, will go out into society and infect people with a strain of virus that is insensitive to the vaccines that are being developed, says Fomsgaard of the Statens Serum Institut.

– We have seen that there are mutations of the virus in minks, which we have not seen in humans. These are just more and more, the more farms get infected, you think.

It is supported by the Danish Minister of Food, Mogens Jensen.

– It is clear that if there is a risk that a mutation could render a vaccine useless, it is an important argument for the decision we have made, he tells DR.

– Uncertainty and frustration

Breeders who have to kill minks without having confirmed infection will receive 100 percent compensation from the government, while farms with confirmed infection will receive less, as they are responsible for keeping the animals infection-free.

– All breeders at the moment are experiencing enormous uncertainty and frustration from this meteor that has fallen on our heads, says Tage Pedersen of the Danish fur breeding association to AP.

Denmark is among the largest mink exports in the world.

– This is crazy. There is no doubt that we are the best to deal with this. They have not arrived by any means, breeder Paul Frederiksen tells AP.

The Danish authorities have encountered opposition from several breeders, and several have refused to let them enter their farms.

– I think I could have involved all breeders in this, if we had trusted that politicians do not piss us off in the back when it comes to compensation, continues Frederiksen.

– Of course we want help from the breeders. So this would have gone a lot faster, says Flemming Kure Marker of the Danish Food and Veterinary Administration.