Spain orders the elimination of almost 100,000 farm minks after the animals tested positive for Covid-19

The Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Environment of the Spanish region of Aragon said in a statement on Thursday that it had ordered the slaughter of 92,700 minks after seven workers on the farm tested positive for Covid-19 and the animals were found to be infected with the coronavirus.

As a precaution, the department closed the farm in Teruel, eastern Spain, on May 22, to follow up before conducting a series of randomized tests, which initially yielded a negative result.

However, subsequent tests, the most recent of which was on July 7, confirmed that 78 of the 90 animals tested, equivalent to 87% of the sample, had been infected with the coronavirus.

In the statement, the department said no conclusions could be drawn about whether “there is human-to-animal transmission or vice versa,” and that “there has been no abnormal behavior detected in the animals, nor has there been an increase in mortality in the animals. “

However, he said that all mink on the farm would be euthanized as a preventive measure.

Can animals transmit Covid-19 to humans?

This is not the first mink farm to have seen a coronavirus outbreak. In May, Dutch authorities introduced mandatory testing on all mink farms in the Netherlands after they said they believed a mink could have infected a human with Covid-19.

The tests have led to the removal of up to a million minks in the country on two dozen farms, according to the animal welfare charity Humane Society International.

“Based on new results from ongoing research into Covid-19 infections on mink farms, there may be a mink-to-human infection,” the Dutch government said in a statement at the time. “It also follows from this research that minks can have Covid-19 without showing symptoms.”

The Dutch government also said it believed cats could play a role in the spread of the virus between farms. “Ongoing research shows that the viruses on two of the infected farms are very similar,” the statement said. Covid-19 was found in three of 11 cats on a mink farm, he said.

The virus has been seen in a variety of other animals, including several tigers at the New York Bronx Zoo in April and a dog in Hong Kong.

According to the World Health Organization, while it is not possible to pinpoint the source of the virus, it most likely originated from bats. However, more research is needed to determine how the virus potentially spreads from animals to humans, as the role animals play in the spread of the virus remains unclear.

CNN’s Mick Krever, Rob Picheta and Julia Hollingsworth contributed to this story.