Oregon mink farm had a COVID-19 outbreak after advocates warned of danger in the state

SALEM, Oregon – An Oregon mink farm has reported an outbreak of COVID-19 among animals and workers.

Oregon Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Andrea Cantu-Schomus declined to say which county the farm is in or how many workers have tested positive, citing federal health privacy rules . The farm has around 12,000 animals, she said.

Outbreaks of farmed mink have been reported in several US states and countries. Earlier this month, Denmark announced it would kill the 17 million mink raised there after confirming 12 people had been infected with a mutated strain of COVID-19 that had spread from mink to humans . This strain has not been found elsewhere.

© Ole Jensen / Getty Images
A mink in an area in Denmark where all mink are to be slaughtered due to a government order on November 7, 2020. Ten samples of mink from Oregon tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the animal virus linked to COVID-19.

Oregon has the fourth largest farmed mink industry in the country, after Wisconsin, Utah and Michigan. These other three states have had outbreaks on mink farms.

The Oregon farmer reported mink showing symptoms to the ODA on Nov. 19, Cantu-Schomus said.

The ODA took samples from 10 of the sick mink and all came back positive for SARS-CoV-2, the animal virus linked to COVID-19 in humans. Cantu-Schomus was unable to say how many mink were sick, but said the 10 were a sample of the population.

November 25: Dead mink infected with mutated form of COVID-19 emerge from graves after mass slaughter

November 5: Denmark to slaughter 15 million farmed mink over coronavirus fears

On November 23, the ODA placed the farm in quarantine, which means that no animals or animal products can leave the farm.

That same day, the Oregon Health Authority asked all workers on the farm to self-isolate, Cantu-Schomus said.

State and national environmental groups have sounded the alarm bells about possible infections in the Oregon mink industry, the Statesman Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported last week.

“It was so predictable,” said Lori Ann Burd of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups urging Oregon to act. “We will certainly follow up with the agency to demand responses and find out what it is doing to mitigate this outbreak and the risks to public health.”

In letters to Gov. Kate Brown and state agencies, the groups called for immediate inspections of Oregon’s mink farms, as well as quarantines and a phased buyout of the industry.

At that time, state officials said they did not intend to follow the groups’ recommendations. The Oregon state veterinarian has contacted mink farmers about the outbreaks, Cantu-Schomus said.

“We have been engaged with the Oregon mink industry for some time, providing information on biosafety to prevent the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 and we were ready to respond,” the veterinarian said on Friday. ‘Ryan Scholz state in a written statement.

“The farmer did the right thing by reporting his symptoms early on and is now cooperating with us and the Oregon Health Authority to take care of his animals and staff,” Scholz said. “So far, we have no reports of mink mortality linked to the virus, but that may change as the virus progresses.”

In Wisconsin, about 3,400 farmed mink have died in the past month after contracting the virus. And in Utah, about 10,000 mink have died since August.

In addition to Denmark and the United States, COVID-19 infections have been reported in farmed mink in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and Greece, according to the World Health Organization .

All of the mink from the Oregon outbreak appear to have recovered, Cantu-Schomus said. The ODA will test the mink 7-10 days after symptoms resolve and, if necessary, continue testing every 14 days until there are no more infected mink.

The sample size will be considerably larger and will guarantee with a 95% confidence level that if the virus were present it would be detected, she said.

“It is suspected that infected workers introduced SARS-CoV-2 into the mink on the farm, and the virus then began to spread among the minks,” Cantu-Schomus said.

ODA is working with the OHA, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control to investigate the dynamics of transmission between mink, other animals around the farm and the humans, she said.

Last week, ODA officials said they had no plans to do any inspections or test the mink unless symptoms were reported. Cantu-Schomus could not say on Friday whether this was still the case.

Michael Whelan is executive director of the Medford-based Fur Commission USA, a national non-profit organization representing mink farmers.

He said the group was offering free COVID-19 testing to farmers and employees.

“All we can do is continue to remind farmers that this is serious and that they need to screen anyone who comes near mink,” Whelan said.

Cantu-Schomus was unable to say how many farmed mink there are in Oregon.

“There is no evidence that animals, including mink, play a significant role in the spread of COVID-19 to humans,” she said. “Currently in the United States, there is no evidence of the spread of mink to humans. However, investigations are ongoing.”

Follow Tracy Loew on Twitter: @Tracy_Loew.

This article originally appeared in the Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon mink farm has COVID-19 outbreak after advocates warn of danger in state