Eight people are being investigated for mink infection.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was ruthless: The country’s more than 14 million minks were to be killed after a mutation in the coronavirus was discovered.

The order to kill was subsequently made illegal and the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries left the Danish government.

But concerns about the virus were palpable, especially over the risk that the mutation would affect the efficacy of a future vaccine. Seven municipalities in North Jutland were closed for a week.

In Sweden, much milder measures are being taken to prevent the spread of a possible mutated virus in mink.

One measure is for everyone in Sölvesborg, a dense mink farm, who is infected with COVID-19 to be asked whether they have had contact with mink.

As a result, eight people are currently being investigated for a possible mutated mink virus that has passed to humans, an increase of three people in less than a week.

“This does not mean that they are infected with mink, there are also other possibilities,” writes infection control physician Bengt Wittesjö.

Investigated by SVA and the Swedish Board of Agriculture

The virus strains from the eight suspected human cases have now been submitted for analysis to the Swedish Veterinary Institute, SVA. SVA also encourages mink farms in Sweden to submit dead minks for testing.

So far, 13 of the country’s 40 mink farms have been confirmed to be infected with covid-19. Three of them were confirmed last week.

Due to the risk of a mutated virus, the Swedish Board of Agriculture has introduced restrictions for all mink farms in the country. These are strict rules for transport, visits to mink farms and people with suspected infection should avoid staying near mink.

But the Swedish Board of Agriculture does not know which mink farms exist in Sweden, according to documents read by the Animal Rights Alliance.

Information on the new restrictions for mink farms was sent to 51 companies.

But according to the Animal Rights Alliance, 25 of the companies on the mailing list are no longer active in the mining industry.

At the same time, the Swedish Board of Agriculture has not sent the information to half of the currently active mink farms.

– Obviously, the responsible authority does not know which mink farms are currently active in Sweden. The question is what the consequences will be if half of all the mink farms in the country are not sent the new restrictions, says Daniel Rolke, president of the Animal Rights Alliance.

The decision on restrictions on mink farms has not been sent to mink farms with confirmed infection, among other things.

Reports from Denmark and the Netherlands confirm that viruses can spread between minks and humans in each other’s immediate environment. On some farms, minks have become ill with respiratory symptoms, on other farms the animals have barely shown any symptoms, according to SVA.

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