The farms are being quarantined, and none have culled their animals, though many thousands of mink have now died of COVID-19. “Let’s put it this way,”  Capua said. He said scientists were worried about outbreaks in pigs but it doesn’t seem like that will be a problem. Plus, some people on the ranch had COVID-like symptoms. It used to be thought that mink displaced otters and were part of the reason for the otters’ decline. “I would really like to be wrong, but I fear mink are just the tip of the iceberg of what could be coming,” she added. Mink will forage several acres to find food and if you keep free roam chicken, they will be targeted. “This is not surprising and in line with what we expect for zoonotic viruses.”. The question now is whether the virus will become established in the wild population. Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus, I’m a science contributor writing about animals for Forbes.com. One mink-associated variant bears the same mutation as the coronavirus variant now spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom; each time such changes happen, there is a risk the virus changes in a way that could make it more dangerous and prolong the pandemic. Kaitlin Sawatzki, a researcher studying Covid-19 in animals at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, said research she is working on suggests there are two viral mutations of Covid-19 that are advantageous to infection in minks and ferrets but not humans. Latest Articles. Denmark first realised that a strain of coronavirus had come from mink in June after an outbreak of the disease at a care home. Like people, they get seasonal respiratory issues. Globe Trek 01/01/2021 20 Read Article. The strain was “indistinguishable” from that of the farm outbreak. Scientists say the mass mink casualties can be attributed to the animals’ natural susceptibility to the virus and the large number of minks kept in close proximity on farms. My love of. Mink are active in most every state except one or two in the southwestern region of the United States. Some animals seem to have receptors that are easier for the virus to attach to, he said. If the virus keeps spilling over into wild animals, it could circulate in parallel and keep reseeding outbreaks among humans. The mink farms provide a “perfect storm” for the virus because minks are vulnerable to Covid-19, and thousands are kept in close proximity, said Weese. “It comes down to the susceptibility of the species and the chance of the virus to spread around,” he said. Mink in Medford were sick, and it looked a lot like COVID-19. The USDA says there is “currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating or has been established in wild populations surrounding the infected mink farms.” Several other wild animals in the vicinity were sampled, but they tested negative. The mink variant turned out not as bad as feared — but the next one could be worse. Denmark, the world’s largest mink exporter, has seen arguably the worst of this species-leaping horror show. For example, they may empty koi ponds of all … When Poulsen picked up the phone, the veterinarian for the Medford-area mink ranches told him that several hundred mink had already died. Let’s not make the same mistake with other animals.”, The Pandemic’s Deadly Winter Surge Is Rapidly Easing, How Dementia Locks People Inside Their Pain, perhaps because it traveled more easily among humans. Some animals, like cows and pigs, seem resistant to Covid-19. Both mink and human cells have specific receptors that allow the virus to attach to them, which made mink a greater concern than other farmed animals, including Wisconsin’s immense dairy-cow population, he says. In general mink are about 18 to 24 inches in length, including its bushy 5- to 7-inch tail, and weighs 1 1/2 to 3 pound. So did the local veterinarians. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Pigs have ACE2 receptors that seem structurally good for Covid-19, but pigs don’t seem to be vulnerable in the real world, said Weese. It’s another blow to the contracting mink business. Social distancing is out of the question, and transmission is all but guaranteed. As an introduced predator, mink have had an adverse impact on the native biodiversity of the Western Isles and in other parts of Scotland. Like people, they get seasonal respiratory issues. Find out how to solve a pest problem with foxes, moles and mink in order to protect your property or business. In some farms in the Netherlands, the virus seems to have circulated in the farm for quite some time before being detected, van der Poel said. “We realized the spillover of SARS-CoV-2 in a new animal population—Homo sapiens—when it was too late. Since mink are usually nocturnal and secretive, they are not easily seen unless the food they seek is active and only available during the day. The variant has mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to invade host cells, and has been named “Cluster 5.” It infected at least a dozen people associated with mink farms in northern Denmark from August to September. France announced it would ban farming mink by 2025. The virus has also been transmitted from mink to humans, and so far, twelve people have been diagnosed with the mutated virus. Since early this summer, Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, was worried about mink. Published 1 June 2015 Last updated 27 September 2016 — see all updates. Soon a second Medford-area mink ranch reported cases. Nine countries have now reported outbreaks on mink farms. That interpretation was shared by Wim van der Poel, the lead researcher on emerging and zoonotic viruses at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research in the Netherlands. Everyone’s tired of it.” When a farm is struck by foot and mouth and other animal diseases, “the government would pay for those animals so you don’t completely wipe out a farm.” But there are no indemnity programs for mink. The species found in Ireland is the American Mink which is bigger than the European Mink. The Netherlands had an outbreak in April; Danish mink farms quickly followed in June. But the mink outbreak raises another fear—if the coronavirus escapes into the wild mink population, COVID-19 could become an entrenched and uncontrolled animal disease, wreaking havoc on animal communities and probably also occasionally infecting people. In early November, the country ordered a complete cull of the farmed mink population; even so, by the beginning of December, 289 mink farms in northern Denmark had reported outbreaks.. First, my study showed that American mink on Navarino Island shows a high occupancy (number of surveyed sites with mink present) during the summer, occupying forested areas away from the shoreline or even streams. Mink are extremely vulnerable to respiratory disease. So mink can get the coronavirus, and they can get it from people; as cases in humans rose precipitously in Wisconsin this fall, Poulsen and his staff figured it was just a matter of time before someone on a mink farm sneezed it into the mink population.