Scott Weese, DVM, discusses mutating Covid-19 in mink

Weese and others have been forthcoming since January 2020 about the need to approach emerging diseases proactively by looking for potential problems and taking steps to control them early, rather than waiting for definitive evidence of a problem. Now with as many as five strains of Covid-19 virus identified in mink, the early warnings of viral mutation have become reality. How significant mutant strains are remains to be determined.

In this post, Weese shares the situation with domestic mink in Denmark, the effort to discontinue breeding and why transmissions between mink and people seem evident.

Source: WormsandGerms Blog, November 6, 2020. Link. Excerpts from Weese’ post:

• Actual mink strain or strain found in link?
• . . . most of the transmission is still human-to-human. It came from people, probably changed in the process of being transmitted between so many mink and then was likely transmitted back to a few people with close contact with the mink, and is now back to being transmitted widely between people.
• Anytime we see movement of a virus into another species, it’s a concern.
• The last thing we want is this virus in wildlife. Transmission to cats has been found on mink farms in the Netherlands. . .
• <mutant virus> could impact the effectiveness of antibody-based treatments or vaccines . . . If <mutant virus> impacts vaccination, we start getting into a situation where we might need a vaccine that protects against multiple strains of SARS-CoV-2. . .

INSIGHTS: The depopulation decisions being made are especially difficult considering the ideal time to harvest mink for their fur is still four to six weeks away. Further, mink being from the mustelid family could implicate badgers, otters, weasels, skunks and wolverines as possible future reservoirs. Of these skunks and weasels are most likely to be visitors to mink ranching environments.