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Image source,Reuters
There are more than 1,000 mink farms in Denmark.
Due to the discovery of a new mutant coronavirus that can be transmitted to humans on the mink farm, the Nordic country Denmark decided to culminate up to 17 million minks.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the news at a press conference on Wednesday (November 4). He said this decision was based on the fact that this mutated virus “posed a risk” to the effectiveness of future coronavirus vaccines.
Denmark is the largest mink producer in the world. Police said the mass slaughter should be carried out as soon as possible.
For several months, outbreaks of COVID-19 have been reported in mink farms in the Jutland region of North Denmark and other parts of Europe.
Currently, the epidemic in Denmark is still spreading rapidly. Local media reported that the mutated virus strain has infected 5 cases of farm mink and 12 cases of humans.
Prime Minister Frederickson called the current situation “very, very serious.”
He cited a government report that the mutant strain was found to weaken the body’s ability to form antibodies, which may invalidate the new coronavirus vaccine currently being developed.
“We have a huge responsibility to our own people, but with the mutations that we have now discovered, we also have a greater responsibility to the rest of the world,” he told a news conference.
Image source,fake images
Mink fur is very valuable as clothing and is often artificially raised.
More than 1,000 mink farms will be culled. Danish Police Chief Thorkild Fogde said this will be a “very big project”.
According to the “New York Times” report, since Denmark has yet to announce the details of the mutant strain, researchers outside of Denmark currently know little about the specific situation.
Stanley Perlman, a microbiologist at the University of Iowa, said he couldn’t evaluate the Danish stocks without more information.
Emma Hodcroft, a geneticist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, asked people to be cautious on social media.
“Don’t panic,” he wrote on Twitter. “When we have more information, scientists will update (on the progress).”
In September this year, several Dutch scientists said in a pre-printed article that has not yet been peer-reviewed that the virus is hopping between mink and humans. In Denmark, the government declared that the virus can be transmitted from mink to humans.
Mink and the new coronavirus
The mink’s scientific name is American mink, which belongs to the Mustela family like the ferret, due to the high value of the fur used as clothing, it is often bred in captivity.
But after the outbreak of the new corona epidemic, the mink was found to be vulnerable to the new corona virus. Because they are mostly kept in crowded environments, they are ideal places to spread the virus and can also get sick and die.
Image source,fake images
Several farms in the Netherlands slaughtered tens of thousands of minks after the outbreak of the new corona epidemic in the summer.
In July, Spain euthanized 100,000 minks after several workers were found to be infected with the common new corona virus on a farm in Aragon.
Several farms in the Netherlands also culled tens of thousands of minks after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in the summer. At one of the affected farms in the south of the Netherlands, authorities sent people to poison the mink with carbon monoxide and then transport the carcass. According to the authorities, the affected farmers may receive compensation.
According to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) report, in September and October this year, in the nine mink farms of Utah, USA, almost 10,000 mink died due to the new crown.
The local vet said that after infection, the mink showed symptoms of mouth breathing, discharge from the eyes and nose, and usually died the next day.
Researchers are currently investigating how and why minks can become infected and spread the new coronavirus.
