COVID-19 outbreak at mink farm
Transportation of animals put under restriction after eight positive tests
A coronavirus outbreak has been declared at a Fraser Valley mink farm after eight people at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
Fraser Health says a team is screening all farm employees and conducting contact tracing, while the farm operators and affected staff are self-isolating.
“The mink farm has been ordered to restrict the transport of animals, products and goods from the farm,” Fraser Health said in a news release. “Animal welfare is being supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and testing of animals is underway. Enhanced measures are in place to ensure safety of animals and farm owners.”
Minks have been discovered to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Last month, Denmark, the world's largest producer of mink pelts, ordered a massive cull of the country's 17 million mink to head off infection carrying over to the human population.
To date, no infections have been reported in mink in B.C. but outbreaks have killed thousands of the animals across the border at farms in Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan and Oregon.
There are 14 mink farms in the Fraser Valley. Fraser Health didn't identify which local farm had the outbreak. A Fraser Health spokesperson told Postmedia News that it isn't known if any of the farm's animals had been tested for the virus.
Earlier this fall, government officials inspected every mink farm in B.C. to ensure all measures were being taken to ensure the virus that causes COVID-19 doesn't pass between animals and humans.
“Ministry of Agriculture staff have been in contact with the province's licensed mink farms within the last several months to ensure that all necessary precautions are being taken to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 through human to animal or animal to human transmission,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the farms had been advised to increase sanitation and enhance “biosecurity measures.”
Lesley Fox, executive director for the Fur-Bearers, a charity group working to eradicate the commercial fur industry, said the Fraser Valley outbreak shows that the government's safety measures weren't good enough.
“The ministry knew this was a problem — they knew mink are highly susceptible to this virus and despite whatever efforts they made ... it was a failure. They can't contain it,” said Fox, who noted that her group had called on the ministry to conduct testing of both the mink and farm workers.
Fox said if animals on the farm are also infected, the potential for spread of the virus is huge.
“Those animals are kept in outdoor sheds and mink escape from farms all the time,” she said.
The Fur-Bearers launched a petition last week calling on the Canadian government to carry out testing on mink farms, develop a plan to quarantine and sanitize infected farms and create a program to help mink farmers to transition away from the fur industry.