Mutation found in Denmark mink farms
• Denmark announced strict new lockdown rules Thursday in the north of the country after authorities discovered a mutated coronavirus strain in minks bred in the region, prompting a nationwide cull that will devastate the large pelt industry.
The government said on Wednesday that it would cull all minks — up to 17 million — to prevent human contagion with a mutated coronavirus, which authorities said could be more resistant against future vaccines.
Seven municipalities in northern Denmark will face restrictions on movement across county lines, while restaurants and bars will be closed, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
Schools will be closed and all public transport will be shut until Dec. 3, she said, encouraging inhabitants to stay within their municipality and get tested.
For Denmark's mink pelt industry, with exports worth US$800 million and employing 4,000 people, the cull could amount to a death knell. The industry association for Danish breeders called the move a “black day for Denmark.”
“Of course, we must not be the cause of a new pandemic. We do not know the professional basis for this assessment and risk … but the government's decision is a disaster for the industry and Denmark,” chairman Tage Pedersen said.
Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in Denmark, Europe's largest producer and exporter of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.
In a meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control held on Thursday, experts agreed with Denmark's strategy to tackle the situation, state epidemiologist Kare Molbak said.
While no coronavirus has been detected on mink farms in Poland, another major mink pelt producer, authorities in Sweden yesterday imposed restrictions on mink farms after infections were found.
However, they have not observed the mutation found in neighbouring Denmark.
Denmark's State Serum Institute (SSI) said tests showed the new strain had mutations on its spike protein, a part of the virus that invades and infects healthy cells.
That poses a risk to future COVID-19 vaccines, which are based on disabling the spike protein, SSI said.
Ian Jones, a virology professor at Britain's University of Reading, said “the danger is that the mutated virus could then spread back into man and evade any vaccine response which would have been designed to the original, non-mutated version of the spike protein.”
Five cases of the new virus strain had been recorded on mink farms and 12 cases in humans.