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An outbreak among captive minks in a mutant form of Covid-19 with the potential to be resistant to future vaccines has prompted the Danish government to implement stricter restriction measures in parts of the country.
The measures were announced after the discovery of a new strain of the disease in animals raised for fur production in the northern regions of the country.
In the Jutland region alone, twelve cases of infection with this virus mutation were diagnosed, forcing several Danish municipalities to impose restrictions on movement between regions and to close restaurants and bars.
The country’s health officials fear the mutation may be resistant to a vaccine.
Kåre Mølbak, director of the State Serum Institute (SSI), the national authority for the control of infectious diseases, said that this new strain has mutations in the proteins that surround the virus and are responsible for the infection of cells.
According to Mølbak, these mutations pose a potential threat to the efficacy of covid-19 vaccines, which work by inactivating the virus’s proteins.
There is a risk that vaccines that target the protein will not provide optimal protection against new viruses occurring in mink.”Explains a report published by the Danish institute.
The country’s Health Minister, Magnus Heunicke, said laboratory research “showed that mutations could affect current candidates for a Covid-19 vaccine,” and stressed that “it is a threat to the development of vaccines against it. coronavirus “. Therefore, we must carry out a national campaign. “
The World Health Organization has already advanced that it has been informed by Denmark about a series of people infected by covid-19 through mink, “with some genetic changes in the virus.”
Concern about variants of the new coronavirus and the role of the mink-derived fur trade is shared by the scientific community. A vaccination specialist warns that the mutation could cause a new wave of infection in the country.
The worst case is the appearance of a new pandemic in Denmark. There is a risk that the mutation is so different that we would have to put new things in the vaccine and therefore it would lead the entire world to the start of the pandemic. ”Said Professor Kåre Mølbak, vaccine specialist and director of SSI Denmark.
On Wednesday, the Danish government announced that slaughter all the minks raised in there, which will be between 15 million and 17 million.
Denmark follows the example of the Netherlands, which, last August, decreed the end of the practice of raising minks for the fur industry in that country, after registering several outbreaks of infection by the new coronavirus in farms dedicated to the breeding of these little ones. mammals.
The creation of mink, or mink, is the third largest source of export in the country and is responsible for the production of 40% of the world’s fur.
