Thought of the Day - November 9 - Mink, Again in the Headlines

As you probably know I have had past articles discussing the dangers of mink farming ( Thought of the Day - June 12 - Mink ). Mink SARS-CoV-2 infections have occurred in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy, the USA as well as in Denmark. Late last week a new headline: "North Denmark is in lock-down over a mutated virus in their mink farms". A quarter of a million Danes went into lock-down on Friday, along with an order to kill many millions more mink. In seven northern Danish municipalities, with some 280,000 residents, sport and cultural activities have been suspended, public transport has been stopped, regional borders have been closed, restaurants closed, and school students higher than fourth-grade will switch to remote learning.

As mentioned in the earlier "Thought of the Day" Denmark was the world's largest mink exporter, with about 17 million mink on farms. The cull was restarted last month when it was found that a further 216 of their 1,139 farms were infected. Of these, five farms were infected with a new variant. As of last month about 200 people in Denmark are know to have been infected by mink, a dozen of these were found to have the new strain. As only eight of these people were directly in the mink industry this implies that human community spread of this new variant has already happened.

It should be noted at this time there is limited evidence that these so called "mutations" pose any increased danger to people. Viral mutations happen all the time, the issue is rather if such mutations result in any functional change, and if such change makes the virus more infectious or lethal. As a preliminary review suggests the new variant seems to be "less sensitive to antibodies", Danish authorities are not taking any chances.

This cull, that will be expanded to all mink across the country, represents an impact of a billion dollars, and will spell the end of the industry in Denmark.

In typical fashion WHO's response at this time is just another let's wait and see, largely saying "further studies are needed". Their two nuggets were reminding countries to do more viral sequencing (so strains can be traced), and to enhance surveillance for COVID-19 at the animal-human interface.

Countries across Europe, recognizing their level of interaction with Denmark, are rapidly implementing additional travel restrictions and quarantine procedures.

I am sure there will be more "mink headlines" to come.

Cheers

Cliff