A wild mink caught in Utah has tested positive for the Covid-19, becoming the first wild animal in the U.S., officials said Monday.
Reuters reports that U.S. The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) notice indicated that a “free ranging, wild mink” that later tested positive for coronavirus had been caught near a mink farm in Utah where cases of the virus have been reported among residents. . USDA officials are conducting tests near farms with confirmed infections to determine whether the virus has spread to nearby wildlife.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the 1st free-range, native wildlife confirmed by SARS-CV-2,” the USDA said in a report to the World Animal Organization for Animal Health.
U.S. More than 115,000 farms have died from the mink virus so far this year, and the breed has been targeted by European officials with similar concerns in mind.
After Denmark killed more than 17 million mink alone, there was concern that the animals were transmitting the virus to humans, which could change the situation before re-infecting humans. The country’s agriculture minister resigned as a result of the above criticism, in which in some cases mink corpses were improperly buried in mass graves that were later exposed.
U.S. Cases of Covid-19 are on the rise even after the first dose of the vaccine became available this week; Since the outbreak began, U.S. More than 16 million infections have been reported in and more than 300,000 people have died.
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