Mink Covid now in SIX countries from America to Italy as mutantvirusfound
SIX countries have reported coronavirus cases on mink farms amid growing concern over a new strain of the disease jumping from animals to humans in Denmark.
America, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have confirmed Covid cases in mink, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
Hundreds of cases of mink-to-human infection have been recorded in Denmark but fears are growing after scientists there discovered 12 humans carrying a mutation of the virus.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen warned that the new virus strain could pose a ‘risk to the effectiveness’ of a much-anticipated future Covid-19 vaccine as the antibodies provided by the jab may not be effective enough.
The WHO said a Covid mutation spreading from mink to humans is a ‘concern’ but insisted it was too early to know if this would affect a potential vaccine.
In Britain, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a ban on non-UK citizens coming from the Scandinavian country amid concerns over the outbreak. UK citizens will be able to return to Britain from Denmark but will be forced to isolate along with all members of their household for 14 days.
Denmark has already ordered a cull of 17million mink in response to the outbreak. All 12 cases in Denmark were identified in September in North Jutland among people aged seven to 79. Eight were linked to the mink farming industry.
The WHO said the new infections, referred to as the ‘cluster 5’ variant, had ‘a combination of mutations, or changes that have not been previously observed’.
‘As viruses move between human and animal populations, genetic modifications in the virus can occur,’ the WHO said.
When coronavirus jumped from humans into mink on fur farms, its spike proteins, which enable it to invade cells, mutated to infect the animals more easily. But when the virus was transmitted back into humans, it carried this mutation with it, making Covid-19 antibodies less effective, scientists fear.
Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge last night said his country had no plans to cull any mink but was monitoring the situation. The other four nations have yet to announce what measures they will take.
Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, warned that the new mutation of the virus could ‘evade’ a potential vaccine. ‘The idea that the virus mutates in a new species is not surprising as it must adapt to be able to use mink receptors to enter cells and so will modify the spike protein to enable this to happen efficiently.
‘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, and not the mink-adapted version.
‘Of course the mink version may not transmit well to man, so it’s a theoretical risk, but Denmark is clearly taking a precautionary stance in aiming to eradicate the mink version so that this possibility is avoided or made much less likely,’ he said.
Denmark’s leading epidemiologist, Professor Christian Sonne of Aarhus University, told the Financial Times: ‘The worst-case scenario is a new pandemic starting again, this time from Denmark.’
He added that some of the family of carnivorous mustelids, which includes mink and ferrets, were ‘ticking bombs’ in regard to the spread of the virus. Denmark is the world’s largest mink fur exporter, producing 17million furs a year. Kopenhagen Fur, a co-operative of 1,500 Danish breeders, accounts for 40 per cent of global mink production. Most exports go to China and Hong Kong.
There are no mink farms in the UK after fur farming was made illegal in 2000.
Animal welfare group Humane Society International hailed the Danish prime minister for taking ‘such an essential and sciencebased step to protect Danish citizens’, and said it hoped this may spell the end of mink farms.
‘Although the death of millions of mink, whether culled for Covid-19 or killed for fur, is an animal welfare tragedy, fur farmers will now have a clear opportunity to pivot away from this cruel and dying industry and choose a more humane and sustainable livelihood instead,’ a spokesman said.