[ad_1]
Transmission of the coronavirus from mink to humans does not necessarily mean that the disease becomes more dangerous, but scientists are on guard after a stunning announcement from Denmark.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday that the country will kill more than 15 million minks and that a variant of the SARS-Cov-2 virus that has been transmitted from animals to 12 people could affect the effectiveness of a vaccine. .
The global media reacted with surprise, especially given the high level of fear that has already caused the Covid-19 epidemic that has claimed more than 1.2 million lives in less than a year.
However, specialists are not convinced that the danger is much greater and await further evidence.
“I really wish the science-by-press release trend would stop,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
“There is no reason why genomic data cannot be shared, which would allow the scientific community to evaluate these claims,” he added on Twitter.
Viruses like the one that emerged in China late last year are constantly mutating, and newer variants are not necessarily worse than old ones.
So far, no studies have shown that the newer variants of SARS-Cov-2 are more contagious or dangerous than their predecessors.
Mink contamination is also not new, with breeders in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States, reporting cases.
Some cases of mink-infected humans have also been reported.
Denmark has been specific in describing how different strains of the virus jumped from mink to man.
“According to information from the Danish authorities, this virus is neither more pathogenic nor more virulent,” specialist Gilles Salvat from the French health agency Anses told AFP.
However, there is concern that one variant “will emerge as a second virus and dominate the population,” he noted.
“Finding a vaccine for one strain is already complicated, and if we have to do it for two, four or six strains, it is even more complicated,” noted the specialist.
He considered the decision to euthanize the Danish mink as a “precaution”.
– ‘Justifiable from a health perspective’ –
Francois Balloux, who teaches at University College London, agreed, telling AFP: “This measure is fully justifiable from a health perspective to eliminate the source of transmission of a serious virus.”
However, he also considered that “evoking the risk that the mink could generate a second pandemic seems excessive and counterproductive in the current climate of fear.”
Balloux noted that similar mutations already exist within the population and have not spread.
“We know that this virus with the same mutations arose in mink farms, was transmitted to humans and did not spread widely,” said the professor.
Still, it was not “completely impossible” that the new strain “could spread and make vaccines less effective,” he acknowledged.
Meanwhile, “the true implication of the changes in the spike protein has not yet been evaluated by the international scientific community and is therefore unclear,” said James Wood, director of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge.
“It is too early to say that the change will cause vaccines or immunity to fail,” he told the Science Media Center.
Cases of Covid-19 virus contamination of cats, dogs, and even lions and tigers have also been observed at the New York Zoo.
But at this point, “the risk of animals transmitting COVID-19 to people is considered low,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Cats and dogs are dead ends from an epidemiologist’s point of view, Salvat explained, because “they can temporarily harbor the virus, but they cannot multiply it enough to be contagious.”
However, French authorities have urged Covid patients to “avoid all contact” with their pets, especially ferrets, which belong to the same family as minks.
Virologist Rasmussen expressed concern about the chances of feral cats spreading the coronavirus.
“Cats are susceptible to infection and there are millions of feral cats in the United States (and millions more around the world). If cats become an established reservoir, we may become trapped with SARS-CoV-2. in the next few years, “he warned.
abd / wai / tgb / gle
