What the mink COVID-19 outbreaks taught us about pandemics
Spread of the coronavirus has exposed troubling problems at fur farms and how we respond to outbreaks there.
Denmark killed all its farmed mink last year, millions of animals, after a variant form of the novel coronavirus was detected circulating between mink and humans. New research has shown that many mink may be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2.Photograph by Mads Claus Rasmusse, Ritzau Scanpix, AFP, Getty Images
ByDina Fine Maron
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Anne Sofie Hammer was searching for sick mink. The Danish government had hired the University of Copenhagen veterinary pathologist in June 2020 to investigate if farmers were infecting mink with the novel coronavirus. This meant going from farm to farm, looking for animals that weren’t eating or had a cough and taking blood samples and mouth swabs.