BFF-37 Spain to cull nearly 100,000 mink with coronavirus

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ZCZC

BFF-37

HEALTH-VIRUS-SPAIN

Spain to cull nearly 100,000 mink with coronavirus

MADRID, July 16, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Spain has ordered the culling of
nearly 100,000 mink on a farm in the northeast after confirming many
were carrying coronavirus, a regional minister said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, Joaquin Olona, agriculture minister for the
Aragon region, said the cull would involve the slaughter of some
92,700 mink who are prized for their pelt.

Located in Puebla de Valverde, about 100 kilometres (60 miles)
northwest of the coastal resort of Valencia, the mink farm has been
carefully monitored since May 22 after seven workers tested positive
for COVID-19, he said.

Since then, no animals have left the property, which is the only
mink farm in Aragon.

Officials have since carried out a string of PCR tests which on July
13 showed that 87 percent of the mink were infected, prompting the
decision to carry out a cull “to avoid the risk of human
transmission,” Olona said.

Officials suspect the virus first reached the farm through a worker
who passed it on to the animals.

But Olona said it was not completely clear if “transmission was
possible from animals to humans and vice versa”.

In the Netherlands, tens of thousands of mink have been slaughtered
since the start of the pandemic after 20 farms were found to be
infected, the Dutch authorities said earlier this month.

The move came after at least two farm workers were found to be
infected with COVID-19 in May, most likely by the mink, with the World
Health Organization saying it could be the “first known cases of
animal-to-human transmission”.

Spain has been badly hit by the pandemic, which has so far claimed
more than 28,400 lives, with the authorities carefully monitoring more
than 120 new outbreaks that have emerged since the lockdown was lifted
on June 21.

BSS/AFP/MRU/2257hrs