Denmark will dig up millions of dead mink after Covled Covid-19 Cull

The drama began in November, when the government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen signed the death warrant for 17 million miners in the country – three times the human population. The researchers found that farms where they were raised for their fur could act as a reservoir for a new strain of the virus – unrelated to the new variant recently found in the UK – that could resist the new vaccines that are now being rolled out. Scientists advising the government have warned that the mutation could become endemic to the wild mink, creating a long-term problem.

The elimination has effectively brought the Danish mink industry, with $ 750 million a year – the largest in the world – to an unedifying end.

Many Danes initially applauded the government’s swift decision. Denmark was also among the first European countries to close its borders when Covid-19 first appeared earlier this year, polluting Ms Fredericksen’s leadership credentials in a country where politicians usually take time to reach a broad consensus on important political elections.

Political opponents and many farmers, however, say her government has acted hastily, while animal rights activists say the episode means Denmark should follow Britain, Germany and other countries that have already banned fur farming.

First, legal experts called the removal order unconstitutional. The government did not have the necessary legal support to impose the sacrifice; subsequently introduced retroactive legislation to cover it. The agriculture minister has resigned, and opposition lawmakers are calling for more leaders to roll over.

Farmers complained that there was no compensation agreement at the beginning of the slaughter. Last month, they drove hundreds of tractors to the capital Copenhagen to support their case and are still waiting for details on what to expect. A package was approved in parliament on Monday.

Then the mink corpses began to reappear, pushed up through the ground by the released gases as their bodies decomposed. Danish newspapers began calling them “zombie mink”, haunting the government as it faced a resurgence of Covid-19 among the human population.

The animals were supposed to be cremated, but the scale of the slaughter meant that up to 5.5 million minks were buried near the towns of Karup and Holstebro.

Eliminating the animals was a challenge. Mink are particularly sensitive to the virus because they are vulnerable to coronaviruses and are raised in tight cages in large numbers, which makes it easier to spread. The researchers found seven different types of mutations in the virus’s spike protein in the farm’s mink after catching it from farm workers. One of these mutations led to four genetic changes that increased the virus’s resistance to antibodies – making it potentially more resistant to vaccines.

It was also found that a dozen agricultural workers were infected with the mutation, making it the first known example of animals catching the virus from humans and then transmitting it back. It has not spread.

Outbreaks of the more common form of Covid-19 have been detected on mink farms in other parts of Europe, where slaughter orders have been imposed, and in the United States, where the Department of Agriculture last week said it found a positive case in a wild mink in Utah as part of a wildlife surveillance project around infected farms.

“As far as we know, this is the first free native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” the USDA said in an alert to the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Meanwhile, Danish mink farmers have an uncertain future. Some farms had grown mink for generations, and Danish mink furs were considered the best in the world and were especially sought after in China and Russia.

Animal rights activists say the elimination should completely mark the end of Denmark’s fur industry. The industry is unlikely to recover.

Without their breeding stock, it will be difficult for mink farmers to return to the 20% premiums they ordered on the global market and which many said they need to cover their margins. The new legislation prohibits the reintroduction of mink to Denmark until the end of next year.

Fur is also steadily declining in favor of the fashion industry, both the volume and price of furs have fallen by about half since 2014, according to the main exchange, Copenhagen Fur.

The stock exchange says it now intends to liquidate operations in the next two to three years.

Write to James Hookway at [email protected]