homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Denmark halts plan to cull minks en-masse over coronavirus concerns

The government fears a Covid-19 mutation might impact the effectiveness of future vaccines.

Fermin Koop
November 12, 2020 @ 2:38 pm

share Share

Denmark, the world’s largest mink producer, has backtracked an attempt to cull the country’s entire mink population amid fears of a Covid-19 mutation that was moving from mink to humans. Now, the government will only “recommend” farmers to kill all their mink instead of forcing them to do so.

Credit Flickr Marie Hale

Last week, the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, said all the country’s mink would be culled due to fears that the Covid-19 mutation could affect the efficiency of future vaccines. But opposition swiftly emerged. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the main opposition party said the cull wasn’t scientifically based.

Denmark’s’ public health agency, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), didn’t find any evidence of the mutated strain, while a number of Danish and international experts questioned whether the mutation was dangerous. Frederik Waage, a law professor at the University of Southern Denmark, said the cull was illegal.

Francois Balloux, director of University College London’s Genetics Institute, told CNN that he didn`t believe there’s any “extra risk” that a mutation in minks could “create some kind of new, different super strain”. However, he believes culls should be carried out because otherwise, mink populations would give the virus an easy reservoir to survive.

The government will now only “recommend” farmers kill all their mink. It needed to have passed new legislation in order to legally mandate a cull. Still, mass culling of mink had already been taking place since the government ordered the cull of all infected herds back on October 1.

“It is a mistake. It is a regrettable mistake,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as she apologized to parliament earlier this week. She admitted the government lacked the legal framework for a nationwide order and only had jurisdiction to cull infected mink or herds within a safety radius.

Denmark is the world’s largest producer of mink fur and has 15 to 17 million animals on about 1,100 farms. The latest figures from the government say Covid-19 infections have been found on more than 200 mink farms. The mink industry supports about 5,500 direct jobs, so a massive culling would have a stronk economic impact.

Poland and Finland are reported to be free of Covid-19 on mink farms, while in the Netherlands fur farming will effectively end this year. In Ireland, a tiny player in the mink sector, testing at the country’s three farms is reported to have begun already. In the US, 11 mink farms had Covid-19 outbreaks.

A statement from US veterinary NGO the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association said the rapid mutation of the virus in mink, and the lack of a cull, was a public health and welfare risk. “Mink, already stressed from the unnatural living conditions, experience severe respiratory distress before dying,” they said.

Covid-19 originally came from a wild animal, it was then transmitted to humans and, later, passed on to farmed mink, before jumping back to humans. Several different mutations have been discovered in mink that do not arise in humans. One called “Cluster 5” is of particular concern, with 12 infected in Denmark.

In a recent article, a group of scientists told Denmark’s Berlingske Tidende newspaper that Cluster 5 had not been detected since September and downplayed their role. But the head of Denmark’s health authority, Soren Brostrom, said the risk was too great when the virus was spreading among the mink population.

share Share

A Brain Implant Just Turned a Woman’s Thoughts Into Speech in Near Real Time

This tech restores speech in real time for people who can’t talk, using only brain signals.

Using screens in bed increases insomnia risk by 59% — but social media isn’t the worst offender

Forget blue light, the real reason screens disrupt sleep may be simpler than experts thought.

Beetles Conquered Earth by Evolving a Tiny Chemical Factory

There are around 66,000 species of rove beetles and one researcher proposes it's because of one special gland.

We Should Start Worrying About Space Piracy. Here's Why This Could be A Big Deal

“We are arguing that it’s already started," say experts.

An Experimental Drug Just Slashed Genetic Heart Risk by 94%

One in 10 people carry this genetic heart risk. There's never been a treatment — until now.

We’re Getting Very Close to a Birth Control Pill for Men

Scientists may have just cracked the code for male birth control.

A New Antibiotic Was Hiding in Backyard Dirt and It Might Save Millions

A new antibiotic works when others fail.

Researchers Wake Up Algae That Went Dormant Before the First Pyramids

Scientists have revived 7,000-year-old algae from Baltic Sea sediments, pushing the limits of resurrection ecology.

A Fossil So Strange Scientists Think It’s From a Completely New Form of Life

This towering mystery fossil baffled scientists for 180 Years and it just got weirder.

ChatGPT Seems To Be Shifting to the Right. What Does That Even Mean?

ChatGPT doesn't have any political agenda but some unknown factor is causing a subtle shift in its responses.