Denmark will resume mink breeding next year, which was stopped due to the spread of the coronavirus among animals.
This is reported by Reuters.
Denmarkʼs Ministry of Agriculture has informed that it will not extend the breeding ban. The health authoritiesʼ assessment found that there was a limited risk to public health due to the resumption of "significantly reduced mink production and the implementation of infection prevention measures".
In April 2020, a mutated form of the coronavirus was discovered in mink. Respiratory problems and increased mortality were observed in the animals. Denmark and Spain were the first to report sick animals, later WHO reported cases of mink infection in the Netherlands, Italy, USA, Sweden and other countries. At the same time, minks infected people.
- Denmark decided to kill 17 million minks on 1 080 farms, farmers opposed such a decision. They said the governmentʼs actions were illegal and killing mink would destroy the businesses of many of them. As a result, Denmark introduced a lockdown in the north of the country.
- Minister of Agriculture Mogens Jensen resigned because of the mink scandal. Immediately after the slaughter of the animals, the Danish authorities announced the disappearance of the coronavirus strain.
- Later it became known that mink graves, which were urgently destroyed after a strain of mutated COVID-19 was detected in them, could have contaminated groundwater.