Covid 19 mutation in mink

[MRC_Hans]

It seems mink are very susceptible to Covid 19 as they have structures similar to humans in their breathing tract.

Denmark har the world's largest production of mink furs. ... That is, till now.

A mutation, called "cluster 5" has shown up in Covid 19 among mink, and it has been transferred to humans in, currently known, 12 cases. This mutation has reduced reaction the the vaccines and other treatments currently under development (it is not otherwise more virulent or contagious than other versions).

To counter this, the Danish government has resolved to have the entire population if mink in the country put down, essentially obliterating a whole business for an unknown time (perhaps forever).

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11...ion-over-coronavirus-spread-mutation/12851638

Hans

 

[Trebuchet]

Can the pelts still be harvested after the cull?

 

[Childlike Empress]

Oh, "mink". I thought Minsk. There is no mutation in Minsk, in fact there is party:

 

[MRC_Hans]

Can the pelts still be harvested after the cull?

That is unsure. They are not going to do it.

It is a disaster for the people who are not only loosing their business but often their life investment. They can be financially compensated, at least to a degree.

However, the world can go on without mink fur.

Hans

 

[Arcade22]

Meanwhile Danish pigs are living bio reactors churning out antibiotic resistant bacteria for the world to experience.

 

[Planigale]

For those unfamiliar this is what they look like.
https://beano.fandom.com/wiki/Minnie_the_Minx?file=Minnie_Minx.jpg
Definite trouble, the UK borders are closed, but the worry is too late.

 

[Planigale]

More seriously mustelids such as weasels and stoats (chorus from the children; how do you tell the difference), are susceptible to respiratory infections and ferrets in particular are commonly used for research on human respiratory infections including covid-19. The worry would be if minks escaped and it got into the feral mustelid population. It may already be circulating in feral Danes. I think the Germans need to make a stand at the Kiel canal and just abandon everything North, the Swedes need to close that Bridge.

 

[dann]

A couple of links to posts in the thread The One Covid-19 Science and Medicine Thread Part 2:
Nov. 4: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13281495#post13281495
Nov. 4: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13281517#post13281517
Nov. 5: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13282242#post13282242
Nov. 5: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13282274#post13282274
Nov. 5: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13282307#post13282307
Nov. 6: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13283885#post13283885
Nov: 6: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13284201#post13284201

From the thread about the Swedish strategy:
Nov. 6: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13283891#post13283891
Nov. 7 (Breaking!):

Danish press briefing at 16:00 CET (in half an hour).
The regional European director of WHO, the Belgian physician Hans Kluge, will be there. The themes are Covid-19, restrictions og mink mutations. (I really love that word!)

 

[dann]

More seriously mustelids such as weasels and stoats (chorus from the children; how do you tell the difference), are susceptible to respiratory infections and ferrets in particular are commonly used for research on human respiratory infections including covid-19. The worry would be if minks escaped and it got into the feral mustelid population. It may already be circulating in feral Danes. I think the Germans need to make a stand at the Kiel canal and just abandon everything North, the Swedes need to close that Bridge.

The Swedes may need to do more than that:

15 million Danish mink will be culled and all of Northern Jutland has been placed on lockdown after the discovery of a new corona mutation.
Now all mink at infected farms in Sweden should be culled too, according to Björn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases.
– In this situation, health is more important than business, he says.
The professor about the new mutation: Cull the Swedish mink (Aftonbladet.se, Nov. 6, 2020)

 

[Darat]

About 1600 years too late but we are now stopping the Danes entering the UK!

 

[dann]

... except in limited circumstances such as for work or for education.
Another exception is if we already live there. It's the so-called Danelaw, I think.
We just can't bring our pet mink, unless it's an emotional support mink.

 

[Rolfe]

And this is one of the strong reasons why elimination of the virus should have been pursued much more vigorously. At the beginning of the year there was no animal reservoir. Now there might be about to be one.

 

[The Atheist]

It is a disaster for the people who are not only loosing their business but often their life investment.

I have to say, I'd never seen how mink were farmed, and the conditions make battery hen cages look sane.

If this all does turn out to be a major problem, I'm going to convert to Gaianism, because it would be the most unlikely poetic justice possible if somehow our absurd factory farming methods - for something of no nutritional value! - causes us to shorten our stay on the planet.

Meanwhile Danish pigs are living bio reactors churning out antibiotic resistant bacteria for the world to experience.

The bacteria is far less of a problem that influenza.

The impact on health of the 1918 'flu pandemic was exponentially worse than we're seeing with Covid, with a death rate ten times that of Covid.

And this is one of the strong reasons why elimination of the virus should have been pursued much more vigorously. At the beginning of the year there was no animal reservoir. Now there might be about to be one.

I'll try to find my post from very early on where I noted one of the best reasons to stop the virus as quickly as possible.

Simple maths. Whatever the chances of a dangerous mutation are, the more people who get infected, the better the chances of it happening. Now we know that animals are capable of acting as that potentially devastating reservoir enabling mutations, the closer we are to the tipping point of 1:1, where a dangerous mutation isn't just likely, but inevitable.

The consensus - such as it is - on the mink issue is that it shouldn't be a problem.

Which doesn't mean the next one won't. (Ferrets? Lots of people have those disgusting weasels for pets. Rats? Good luck trying to cull them, and somewhat appropriate source.)

But it's ok - we won't learn the lesson, just as most places haven't learned anything so far.

 

[dann]

And this is one of the strong reasons why elimination of the virus should have been pursued much more vigorously. At the beginning of the year there was no animal reservoir. Now there might be about to be one.

Bats? Pangolins, maybe?
The problem is that many countries may not do as many gene-sequencing analyses as Denmark, so they may not even discover occurring mutations until it turns out that the vaccines don't work. And some countries may prefer not to reveal similar mutations if they occur.

Denmark has an interest in securing its substantial export of agricultural products and has therefore been open about both the mutated virus, the consequences it might have, and the measures taken to eradicate it. The mink farmers are obviously upset about culling all mink in the whole country when only some regions are affected, but Hans Kluge applauded the better-safe-than-sorry decision.

Other countries (or regions) may consider that it will serve their interests better to keep things like this a secret. In Sweden, they don't even seem to consider culling the mink, not even in the many farms that are already infected:

Sverige finder coronavirus på flere minkfarme (TV2.dk, Nov. 5, 2020)

Sweden finds coronavirus in several mink farms

Swedish chief veterinarian Håkon Henrikson seems to suggest business as usual: Go ahead and make fur coats of the infected mink!

- Det er sandsynligvis kort tid, at virusset kan overleve på ydersiden af pelsen, så jeg vil mene, at der allerede efter en uge ikke er noget tilbage, siger chefveterinæren.

- The virus probably can't survive for long on the outside of the fur, so I think that nothing will be left after a week, the chief veterinarian says.

[sarcasm]Anyway, herd immunity will no doubt solve the problem sooner or later, and it's not as if you can tell mink to wear face masks and practice social distancing. [/sarcasm]

 

[dann]

From the press briefing earlier today. Most of it was in Danish, but Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, can be heard from 43:00:
Press briefing about coronavirus cluster 5 (DR.dk, Nov. 7, 2020)

 

[rjh01]

And this is one of the strong reasons why elimination of the virus should have been pursued much more vigorously. At the beginning of the year there was no animal reservoir. Now there might be about to be one.

I think it was too late as soon as it escaped from China. You only needed one infected human to touch a mink or other similar animal and it has spread to the animal. Now I suspect the virus will never be eliminated. Even if a vaccine is developed that is 100% effective for life, the virus will hide in reserve in wild animals. It will then infect people who have not been vaccinated. And there will always be heaps of those.

 

[Rolfe]

I don't think this had to happen, and I don't think it's inevitable even now. (This was my actual job for the latter part of my career.)

 

[The Atheist]

I don't think this had to happen, and I don't think it's inevitable even now. (This was my actual job for the latter part of my career.)

I'd like to know on what basis you think that, because as far as I'm aware we've never had a pandemic coronavirus like this in the past, and this particular virus seems to infect an extraordinary number of animals. Cats and dogs get it, but they seem to be a poor reservoir, because there aren't more than 1 or 2 cases where the pet is believed to have infected a human.

Now we know mustelids get it, and are giving it to humans, so the chances of it surviving in a wild population must be very high if the virus gets into one, and since it can be transmitted by fomite, the chances of wild animals infecting humans is also pretty high.

There are probably 100 million+ people with Covid right now, passing it on in all directions. Seems to me the odds are overwhelmingly that if there wasn't an animal reservoir for this disease, there will be now.

 

[dann]

Posts about the virus mutation in minks in Denmark in the Sweden thread:
Nov. 10:
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13289043#post13289043
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13289111#post13289111
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=13289173#post13289173

 

[dann]

Frank Andersen opdagede selv, at dyrene havde symptomer, da han skulle i gang med at aflive sine mink op til weekenden. Han informerede derfor Fødevarestyrelsen, der tog prøver af 36 døde og levende dyr. Ud af dem viste det sig, at 26 var smittet med coronavirus, selv om der altså havde været smitte blandt dyrene før.
Minkfarm smittet med coronavirus for anden gang (TV2.dk, Nov. 10, 2020)

Frank Andersen discovered that the animals had symptoms when he was going to cull his mink before the weekend, so he informed the Directory of Foodstuffs, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fishing, who took samples from the 36 dead as well as living animals. 26 of them turned out to be infected with coronavirus even though the animals had been infected before.
Mink farm infected with coronavirus a second time

The farmer had hoped that his mink would be immune after the infection in August, so he would be able to start all over with immune animals. It remains to be seen if the just didn't get any immunity, or if it is a new mutation.
According to the experts, this example stresses the importance of culling all mink.