Mink with the coronavirus have infected two people in the Netherlands in what are probably the first such cases of transmission during the epidemic, government and health authorities said on Monday.
Mink carrying the virus were found on four of the 155 farms in the country where they are bred for their fur, Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said in a letter to parliament that detailed the two cases.
She said the risk of such animal-to-human transmission of the virus outside the farms was โnegligible.โ
On three of the four infected farms, the source of infection has been shown to be a sick human, while the fourth is still under investigation, the minister said.
The Netherlandsโ Institute for Healthโs (RIVM) director Jaap van Dissel said that, while a few cats and other animals had been infected with COVID-19 by humans, the Dutch mink-to-human transmissions were practically unique.
โThis is the first time weโve found, at least weโve shown that itโs likely, that in two cases the infection has gone from animal to human,โ he said in testimony to parliament on Monday.
โOf course the original source of infection in China was also very likely animals.โ
A law banning mink farming in the Netherlands was passed in 2013, and the remaining farms are due to cease operations in 2023.
REUTERS
