Spain orders cull of almost 100,000 farmed mink soon after animals exam beneficial for Covid-19

The Division of Agriculture, Livestock and Natural environment of Spain’s Aragon region reported in a statement on Thursday that it had ordered the slaughter of the 92,700 mink after 7 staff on the farm examined beneficial for Covid-19 and the animals were uncovered to be infected with the coronavirus.

As a precaution the section shut down the farm, in Teruel, japanese Spain, on May well 22, for monitoring prior to conducting a quantity of assessments at random, which originally returned a damaging result.

On the other hand, subsequent tests, the most latest of which was July 7, verified 78 out of 90 animals examined — equal to 87% of the sample — experienced become contaminated with the coronavirus.

In the statement, the office explained no conclusions could be drawn as to no matter if “there is human-to-animal transmission or vice versa,” and that “no irregular behavior has been detected in the animals nor has there been an improve in mortality in them.”

However, it explained all mink on the farm would be slaughtered as a preventative measure.

Can animals spread Covid-19 to humans?

This is not the to start with mink farm to have seen a coronavirus outbreak. In May possibly, Dutch authorities released obligatory screening at all mink farms in the Netherlands after they explained they considered a mink may have contaminated a human with Covid-19.

The tests has led to the culling of up to 1 million mink in the nation at two dozen farms, in accordance to animal welfare charity Humane Modern society Intercontinental.

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“On the foundation of new study outcomes from the ongoing exploration into Covid-19 bacterial infections at mink farms, it is plausible that an infection took position from mink to human,” the Dutch government claimed in a statement at the time. “It also appears from this research that minks can have Covid-19 with no displaying symptoms.”

The Dutch government also stated it thought cats may enjoy a purpose in the distribute of the virus in between farms. “Ongoing investigation shows the viruses at two of the contaminated farms are quite identical,” the statement reported. Covid-19 was identified in a few out of 11 cats at just one mink farm, it reported.

The virus has been observed in a variety of other animals, which include a amount of tigers in New York’s Bronx Zoo in April and a puppy in Hong Kong.

In accordance to the Environment Health and fitness Organization, while it is not attainable to determine specifically the source of the virus, it most likely originated in bats. Nevertheless, extra investigation desires to be performed to decide how the virus most likely spreads from animals to humans as the purpose animals participate in in the spread of the virus stays unclear.

CNN’s Mick Krever, Rob Picheta and Julia Hollingsworth contributed to this tale.