Did a mink just give the coronavirus to a human?
DUTCH AUTHORITIES ANNOUNCED this week that they suspect a mink has transmitted the coronavirus to a worker at a fur farm in the Netherlands. If confirmed, this would be the first concrete evidence of a specific species passing the virus to a human.
Analysis found strong similarities between the virus in the worker and in the minks, making it plausible that the virus jumped species. “Based on this comparison and the position of that form of the virus in the family tree, the researchers concluded that it is likely that one staff member at an infected farm has been infected by mink,” the Dutch government said in a statement.
Mink on at least three farms in the southern part of the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Lisa Gaster, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
“The take-home message now is we are still learning a lot about COVID-19, this coronavirus, and the animals it can infect,” says virologist Brian Bird, a veterinarian and associate director of the University of California Davis One Health Institute. Bird, who is not involved in the Dutch response, cautions against undue alarm. “The risk here is related to direct contact or proximity to farmed mink, and certainly the general population has very little contact with those animals at those settings.”
Domestic dogs, cats, tigers, and lions have also tested positive for the virus, though there is no evidence that those animals have transmitted the disease to humans.
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There are more than 800,000 mink living on Dutch farms and, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the industry brings in about $100 million dollars a year. In the wild, the weasel-like animals live in or near water. Their soft fur has long been coveted for clothing, particularly in China, the top importer of mink pelts.
And this from the email:
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced two mink farms in Utah reported “deaths in numbers they’d never seen before,” a USDA spokesperson told Science, in addition to several staff coming down with COVID-19. Nat Geo’s Dina Fine Maron tells me there’s no information yet on whether the virus spread from mink to humans or vice versa (that’ll require genetic testing, which is currently underway), and the USDA hasn’t shared whether it’s testing for the virus at any of the nation’s other 275 mink farms. (U.S. mink farms produce about three million mink pelts a year.)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/05/coronavirus-from-mink-to-human-cvd/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Animals_20200820&rid=2D7EBD8232363870D75E126868635ACF
I had no idea this horrifying industry was still going in this country. I'm guessing they're all exported.
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