Mink test positive for COVID-19 at Fraser Valley farm
Animal tests ordered after eight workers were infected, facility under quarantine
A Fraser Valley mink farm is under quarantine after five animals tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans.
The Ministry of Agriculture, which isn't revealing the name of the farm, says the animal testing was ordered after eight farm workers tested positive for the disease over the weekend.
“The results were expected, considering the interaction between infected workers and mink on the farm. Testing to determine genome sequencing and the strain of the virus continues. Results are anticipated in the coming week,” the ministry said in a news release.
The ministry says samples were submitted to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, and the World Organization for Animal Health has been notified.
The province's chief veterinarian has placed the farm under a quarantine order prohibiting the movement of animals and materials from the property, and a plan is in place to provide feed and care to the mink during the outbreak.
There are 14 mink farms in the Fraser Valley.
In September, B.C.'s chief vet, Rayna Gunvaldsen, and Agriculture Ministry officials inspected every mink farm in B.C. to ensure that all measures were being taken to make certain that the virus doesn't pass between animals and humans. The ministry said the infected farm was “found to comply with all animal welfare and biosecurity standards.”
“The outbreak at this farm is not considered to pose a health risk to other mink farms,” the ministry said.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said earlier this week that the outbreak was concerning because transmissions between humans and mink have occurred in other countries and there's a potential for mutations of the virus.
Mink are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, but the virus can also be contracted by ferrets, fruit bats, hamsters, cats, dogs and tree shrews. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes that large cats in captivity have tested positive for the virus, including lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo in New York, a puma in South Africa and tigers at a zoo in Knoxville, Tenn.
The virus is believed to have jumped from animals, likely a bat, to humans in late 2019. Since then, the World Health Organization says there have been 68 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, which has resulted in more than 1.5 million deaths.
In Denmark, the world's largest producer of mink pelts, the government ordered a massive cull of the country's 17 million mink earlier this year to head off infection carrying over to humans.
The WHO said in a statement Dec. 3 that the decision to cull mink in Denmark was made after information revealed it wasn't possible to stop the spread of infection from farm to farm or from animals to humans.
“Mink are acting like a reservoir and contributing to the ongoing transmission in Denmark,” the WHO said.
Mink farming in Denmark has now been banned until the end of December 2021.
The Fraser Valley mink are the first mink to test positive for the virus in Canada, but outbreaks have killed thousands of the animals at farms in Utah. There have been other outbreaks in Wisconsin, Michigan and Oregon. Mink have also tested positive in France, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Greece and Lithuania.
The U.S. CDC says it's likely infected farm workers were the initial source of the U.S. mink-farm outbreaks, but once the virus is introduced on a farm, spread of the virus can occur between mink, as well as from mink to other farm animals (dogs and cats). While the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low, the U.S. CDC says that reports from infected mink farms in The Netherlands and Denmark suggest “that in these environments there is the possibility for spread of SARS-CoV-2 from mink to humans.”
The very first animal found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Canada was a mixed-breed small dog in Ontario that was tested Oct. 6. At the time, Ontario's chief vet, Jaspinder Komal, wrote in a letter to the World Organization for Animal Health that that finding wasn't unexpected and that he expected “more positive cases to be detected in COVID-19 positive households.”