Denmark to cull entire mink population after coronavirus mutation spreads to humans | Reuters
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 4 years ago • 12 commentsBy: Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (U. S.)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Reuters Staff COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will cull its mink population of up to 17 million after a mutation of the coronavirus found in the animals spread to humans, the prime minister said on Wednesday. Slideshow ( 6 images ) Health authorities found virus strains in humans and in mink which showed decreased sensitivity against antibodies, potentially lowering the efficacy of future vaccines, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference. "We have a great responsibility towards our own population, but with the mutation that has now been found, we have an even greater responsibility for the rest of the world as well," she said. "The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine," Frederiksen said, adding that it "risks being spread from Denmark to other countries." The findings, which have been shared with the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, were based on laboratory tests by the State Serum Institute, the Danish authority dealing with infectious diseases. The head of WHO's emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, on Friday called for full-scale scientific investigations of the "complex, complex issue" of humans - outside China - infecting mink which in turn transmitted the virus back to humans. Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in the Nordic …
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This is truly a scary development. Let's hope that the 12 people who were infected didn't spread this new variant.
COVID-19 has already mutated in the US. It's now more contagious, but not more deadly. Source
But this variant apparently is more deadly. I am not shocked by this. As I have said many times over that I know how deadly this can be to cats.
never mind I skimmed the article
I pretty much expected this to happen at some point.
17 million mink in Denmark and the same thing happened in Utah with mink.
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The Utah experts said there was no danger of the mink spreading the virus to humans, they may want to talk to the Danes.
If humans were so set on killing animals so they can wear their fur we wouldn't have this problem.
Could be a different strain of the virus in Utah? Since there seems to be more strains of Covid 19 than the common cold these days.
Minks seem particularly susceptible to COVID-19, likely because of a protein in their lungs, the ACE2 receptor, which binds to the virus and appears to predict vulnerability to the infection, according to Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. Humans also have this protein in their lungs.
Which would make them, as well as ferrets, useful in studying a coronavirus which could also infect humans. This kind of throws a wrench in the "it came from a pangolin" theory that China put forth. The reason this virus is so easily transmitted to the mink is most likely it originated from a ferret.
Your last sentence is a little funny considering as to who said it. The mink, like pigs, the only thing allowed to get away is the squeal.