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All over the world, mink are getting sick.
Small ferret-like mammals bred for their precious fur have sounded the alarm after contracting and mutating the coronavirus, sending it back to humans.
The virus, officials said, spread from human manipulator to mink, mutated, and then spread to humans.
Denmark went so far as to slaughter 17 million mink in November in response to epidemics at more than 200 mink farms. The northern region of the country, where most of the fur farms are located, has been placed under strict lockdowns.
The Danish government has spared no mink, killing infected and healthy animals.
“We would rather go too far than take a step too small to fight Covid-19,” the country’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told a press conference in early November. The country’s prime minister then apologized and his food and agriculture minister came down when the order to kill the animals was declared illegal.
The story, however, did not end there.
Since the massacre, hundreds of mink carcasses have emerged from their graves.
Buried in shallow pits and trenches in western Denmark, the dead mink were pushed out of the ground by gas emitted by their decaying bodies, prompting more outrage and concern.
And across the Atlantic, mink farms in the United States are seeing the spread of Covid-19 and death on their own.
Here is what is going on.
Why are minks getting Covid-19 in the first place?
We know that Covid-19 originated from an animal host and has recently spread to humans, said Jonathan Runstadler, professor in the department of infectious diseases and global health at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “This would suggest that the virus has retained the capacity for replication and infection in other animal hosts.”
Runstadler, who studies emerging diseases in animals, said the outbreak in mink hasn’t surprised many people in his field, in part because of the conditions they live in.
In fur farms, mink are densely packed in ripe conditions for close contact with each other. These conditions could be ideal for pushing small mammals into metal machines that skin them for fancy coats and hats, but they can also be breeding grounds for the coronavirus.
Runstadler said it was unclear whether minks are unique among other species in their ability to contract and spread the virus, or if they are just in a situation that leads to such outbreaks.
What is known, however, said Scott Weese, a professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, is that viruses do not automatically enter cells. They have to stick to something.
“We have viruses which are just human viruses or viruses for dogs or cats,” he explained. “This virus attaches well to mink. It’s a very good game.
It also attaches quite well to cats, but not as well to dogs and cows, he said. Still, we don’t know much about how it works in mink or other animals, in part because scientists have been busy trying to understand how Covid-19 affects humans. But we do know a few things that raise eyebrows.
Mink that catch Covid-19 sometimes transmit a mutated form of the virus to humans.
“Transmission to people is more of a concern on a personal level,” Weese said. “Overall, this is probably not a big deal as not many people have contact with mink.”
When outbreaks occur on farms, local health departments impose quarantines. In northern Wisconsin, two Taylor County farms are currently under quarantine after recent outbreaks killed 5,500 mink. Animals cannot enter or leave the farm, said Kevin Hoffman, public information manager for the Wisconsin Division of Animal Health.
Hoffman said the epidemics were under control. His department helps farms compost mink bodies, and there is currently no conversation in the state about mass slaughter.
Still, “we’re really worried,” Hoffman said, adding that farmers are urged to interact with mink as they would humans during a pandemic: wear appropriate PPE and keep their distance.
There are also concerns that a mutated form of the virus, given to humans by mink, will make it more difficult to deliver an effective vaccine.
“There is still a debate about whether this is a relevant change, and there is no clear answer about it,” Weese said.
This is why Weese and Runstadler say more studies need to be done to understand Covid-19 in mink.
“I am concerned that we are not doing enough to monitor this situation to make sure this virus does not spread in animal populations,” Runstadler said. “We should identify the interfaces where humans and animals come in close enough and frequent enough contact for the virus to spread, and do some surveillance.”
On fur farms, scientists have seen Covid-19 pass from mink to cats via mink manure and are worried about what would happen if it entered wild animal populations.
“The other area to be concerned about is the release of this virus into an animal host which becomes a regional or local reservoir for viral infections,” Runstadler said.
Zombie aim
The decision to kill the mink was drastic.
“The easiest way to get rid of a problem is to get rid of the problem,” Weese said, “but that’s not always the best way.”
Part of the problem, he explained, is that we don’t know the effects of the spread. If farms with outbreaks were isolated, it is not known whether the virus would circulate through all the mink and eventually die.
“We want this virus to remain a human virus,” Weese said. Slaughter is often the solution when the data on animal spread is inconclusive. “When you have a disease that kills a lot of people, there’s less willingness to be lax with the animal side,” he says. Plus, people don’t have the close attachment to mink that they might dog. If the animal is not an ordinary pet or an endangered zoo animal, there is less outrage when it is killed.
But Denmark’s decision was not without its critics. Outrage in Denmark over the release of images and videos of botched killings and mink mass graves, and farmers have spoken of the hardship it will cause them.
“We have 65,000 aims. Next week everything will be shot,” Danish mink producer Martin From told the BBC in November. “This will end our activities.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologized for the murder, heartbreaking as she called it a “regrettable mistake” and admitting that the government did not have the legal competence to slaughter so many animals.
The news of “zombie minks,” being pushed from their shallow and quickly constructed graves by gas created by their decaying bodies, only made the anger worse.
The Danish government wants to dig up some of the mink slaughtered from mass graves.
For animal rights groups, the debacle illustrates why fur farming should be eliminated.
“With or without slaughter, the animals on these farms would still be brutally killed at some point,” said Ashley Byrne, associate director of PETA. “These Covid-19 outbreaks and the gruesome circumstances that have accompanied them in the mink industry are just further proof that the fur industry must be ended.
Byrne called the farms a “recipe for disaster” in a pandemic, pointing out that fur farms also put humans at risk.
But Marc Kaufman, a New York fur trader who sells a lot of mink coats, said there was no reason for his industry to be concerned about epidemics.
“The water rises everything,” he said. “With furs, if it’s not done in one place, it’s done elsewhere. The demand is there and the need for the product is there. If Copenhagen does not cultivate the skins, Russia will. If Russia doesn’t, China will. Either way, there will be a supply because there is a demand.
Kaufman, whose family has been in the business since 1870, said his store was busier this year than last year and customers weren’t talking about the mink getting the Covid-19.
“They slaughter cows when they have cow disease, they put chickens when they have salmonella, this is not the first time that animals have been killed for disease. Things happen. “He said.” When it’s cold, people need fur. “
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