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In recent weeks, several hundred thousand minks have been killed in Denmark to prevent a mutated version of the coronavirus from spreading to humans. The Norwegian authorities have asked everyone who has been to Denmark to be tested for the mutated variant of the coronavirus.
Before the weekend, the fight against the coronary mutation drastically intensified and seven municipalities were closed.
At the same time, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that all minks in Denmark, a total of between 15 and 17 million, would be killed.
On Monday, however, several Danish media were able to reveal that the order to kill all minks, also on farms without corona infection, had no legal basis in Danish law.
Danish authorities blame unclear communication between ministries, according to DR.
Terrible message to receive
Mink farmer Lars Sørensen runs a large mink farm near Esbjerg. The tells the BT newspaper that on Thursday, the day after the illegal decision, he began killing his nearly 70,000 minks.
– It was a terrible message to receive. My life’s work collapsed, but we had to start, says Sørensen.
Sørensen was mildly surprised when informed that the general murder decision is not authorized by law.
– I’m really shocked and angry. What is the government really doing? Sørensen tells the newspaper.
– No return
Sørensen says he still feels pressure to carry out the murder, even though it is not authorized by law. Sørensen says he has been called by the police and the military, who wanted to check if he had an exact number of how many minks he has.
– I have considered stopping the killing, but defying the authorities is violent.
Other mink farmers, such as Jens Balling, say they stopped killing their animals after it emerged that the decision to kill all minks was illegal, according to Berlingske.
Interest organization Danske Minkavlere says there is no going back after the order to kill was given.
– It is a terrible and difficult situation for an industry to close immediately. But there is no going back. The leadership of our organization is in complete agreement with that, says leader Tage Pedersen to Berlingske.
Military personnel have helped Danish health authorities to deposit the dead mink in mass graves near Holstebro.
Photo: Morten Stricker / AFP
“Thousands” of dead minks blocked the road
According to Danish TV 2, mink farmers get 20 DKK in “tempo bonus”, if they killed the mink within the first ten days after the illegal decision.
The way the mink has been killed has created a resurrection. Among other things, mass graves several kilometers long have been excavated in a military area of Holstebro, writes Dagbladet Holstebro-Struer.
Military personnel are also said to have helped health authorities get rid of the mink. The reason for the mass graves is that incinerators can no longer keep up with the killings.
On Wednesday night, police and road authorities mobilized to remove the dead mink that had fallen from a truck on the main road 12 between Nordenskov and Hodde in Jutland, Denmark. South and South Jutland Police write on Twitter that people should take alternative routes.
– From Ølgod to Nordenskov, they are scattered everywhere. There are thousands, and it is getting worse. It was completely crazy. It’s grotesque, says a witness Ekstra Bladet has spoken to.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen ordered the “closure” of seven Danish municipalities before the weekend.
Photo: Philip Davali / AP
– I take the blame
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was pressured in the Folketing about why she ordered before the weekend that all minks be killed.
– Even though it is busy, it goes without saying that it should be completely clear what new legislation requires. It has not been, and I would like to apologize for that, said Frederiksen.
Danish media write that the job of Food Minister Mogens Jensen, in some newspapers referred to as “Mink-Mogens”, is at stake.
Photo: UNTV / AP
He also pointed to his food minister, Mogens Jensen, and said that he addressed the murder issue this weekend, according to DR.
Mogens Jensen acknowledges that mistakes have been made in the case.
– I want to be clear and distinct that we have been wrong. We were not allowed to ask farmers outside the mink areas to also euthanize the animals. I take the blame for what happened, Jensen tells Danish TV 2.
“Only two possible outcomes”
Several Danish opposition parties are now demanding Jensen’s resignation. In one analysis, Thomas Larsen, a political commentator for Berlingske, writes that there are now only two possibilities for Jensen, and that “neither of them ends well for him.”
On Tuesday, the government sent a new letter in which it changes its wording from ordering the mass slaughter of minks to requesting it. At the same time, the government is working to pass legislation that can grant legal authority to demand the murder.
The government has also proposed to ban mink farming until 2022.
Personnel in protective suits work to dump mink at a military installation.
Photo: Morten Stricker / AFP
Mutated virus
Bats and minks are the only animals we know of that transmit coronavirus to humans.
The Danish National Serum Institute has found five different mutations of the coronavirus in mink, which have spread to humans in North Jutland.
It is especially one of them, “cluster 5”, which is causing concern, because it has four different changes in the virus labels, that is, what stands out from the virus itself.
The reason the Danish authorities are so concerned about the mink outbreak is that a vaccine will be less effective against the “group 5” mutation.
Before the weekend, the Statens Seruminstitut stated that this type of infection has spread to 12 people. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has not recorded the same mutation in Norway.
Some 250,000 Danes in the northern part of Denmark must limit social interaction, after the mutated version of the coronavirus was discovered in mink. Here from a bar in Hjørring.
Photo: Claus Bjoern Larsen / AP
Don’t think the mutation will spread
An article by Videnskab.dk, which is reproduced on Forskning.no, states that Statens Seruminstitut has not provided sufficient data on the new variant of the virus.
This means that other researchers have not had a chance to assess how robust the database is.
– When you come up with such grandiose proposals, everyone follows you, and then you also have to share the documentation, says Poul Nissen, professor of molecular biology and genetics at Aarhus University.
Santa says that the data may say something about the danger of the mutation occurring elsewhere.
Kasper Planeta Kepp, a professor of chemistry and biology computer modeling at the Technical University of Denmark, believes that Danish authorities have exaggerated the danger that the mutated coronary variant will destroy a vaccine.
It only happens if the variant spreads through the population, Klepp notes.
– The probability that the new variant will become common in the population, where it competes with the variant of the original virus, is extremely small, unless the variant has a large evolutionary advantage, which is also highly unlikely, says Klepp to Videnskab.dk.
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