Should we be concerned about the mutation of the virus in contact with mink?

While the missing animal link between bat and man is not yet established with certainty – the suspected pangolin has long since been “eliminated” and specialists now suspect contamination through the civet, already at the origin of SARS -, Covid-19 it continues to undergo mutations, often harmless, but which perhaps will enlighten scientists about its origin. The most serious, called “Cluster 5”, concerns mink farms – even the vision is an animal of the same family as the civet, the mustelids. Already in the spring, especially in the Netherlands, cases of contamination of visions from Covid-10 had appeared. But this autumn the matter is much more serious, to the point where the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which mainly covers the 27 countries of the European Union and the UK, has called on countries to adopt every Thursday. “Infection prevention and control measures for mink farm workers and visitors”.

Low efficacy of human antibodies

It all started in Denmark, in the beloved North Jutland province of Hamlet, with cases of contamination from mink to humans. In total, 214 patients were carriers of mink-related mutant forms in Denmark, including 12 of the “Cluster 5” form from September. “The cases were between the ages of 7 and 79, eight of which were related to the mink farming industry and four were from the local community,” the World Health Organization said. According to the latter, the “Cluster 5” strain implies, according to the first studies, a lower efficiency of human antibodies, which threatens the development of a vaccine against Covid-19. However, “early observations suggest that the clinical presentation, severity and transmission of infected people are similar to those of other SARS-CoV-2 viruses in circulation,” specifies the WHO.

On 4 November Denmark, the world’s leading exporter of mink skins, ordered the culling of over 15 million of these mammals but, after a legal micmac that France is not the only one to know, only a little over 2.4 millions of animals were slaughtered. Drastic restrictions were imposed on Thursday for a month in the seven municipalities where most cases were reported on farms, which may be enough to curb the outbreak in the North Jutland province. No new human cases of this strain have been detected in the past few days.

However, the scientific community is concerned about the existence of “Cluster 5” cases outside of Denmark and undetected. To date, six countries, namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States, have reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 in mink farms in the World Organization for Animal Health. And the rarer and more expensive mink fur becomes, the more it will be sold on black markets with a total lack of traceability of the goods.

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