Oregon Mink Farm Reports COVID-19 Outbreak

A COVID-19 outbreak has spread among workers and animals at an Oregon mink farm, according to the Journal of statesmen. A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Agriculture declined to comment on the number of reported cases, but said the farm in question had around 12,000 animals. “It was so predictable,” said Lori Ann Burd of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We will certainly follow up with the agency to demand responses and find out what it is doing to mitigate this epidemic and this public health risk.” The farm was quarantined on November 23 so that no animals or animal products could leave the premises. The same day, the Oregon Health Authority asked workers to self-isolate.

Denmark recently killed 17 million mink after 12 people were infected with a mutated strain of COVID-19 that has spread from mink to humans. The exterminated minks would have started to come out of their mass graves.