More COVID-19 infection at mink fur businesses

This 17 July 2020 video says about itself:

Coronavirus: Spain orders the execution of nearly 100,000 mink animals.

Health authorities said that nearly 100,000 mink fur animals will be culled on a farm in northeastern Spain after it has been proven that many of them have tested positive for coronavirus.

The outbreak was discovered in Aragon County after the wife of a farm employee contracted the virus in May.

It has been proven that her husband and six other agricultural workers have been diagnosed with the disease since then.

The mink, raised for their precious fur, was isolated and closely monitored after the workers were injured.

But when tests on July 13 showed that 87% of the minks were infected, health authorities ordered the execution of 92,700 semi-aquatic animals.

The authorities said that compensation would be paid to the company that ran the farm, which was based in a village 200 km (125 miles) east of Madrid.

Together with Madrid and Catalonia, Aragon is one of the coronavirus hotspots in Spain, with more than 250,000 infections and 28,000 deaths recorded since the start of the epidemic.

Joaquín Olona, ​​the Minister of Agriculture of Aragon, told reporters on Thursday that the decision to execute minks was taken “to avoid the risk of human infection.”

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Studies have shown that the virus is infectious among some animals, including cats and dogs.

However, little is known about the possibility of animal-to-human transmission, with researchers investigating the risk.

There have been other cases of workers who have been confirmed to have coronavirus infection on mink farms in Denmark and the Netherlands, both of which are major producers of animal fur.

In the Netherlands, tens of thousands of minks have been slaughtered in recent months after the outbreak was discovered on farms across the country.

The move came after the Dutch government said it had discovered two suspected cases of farmworkers infection in May.

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“There were individuals who infected the mink, people who infected the mink, and some of these minks infected some people,” said Maria Van Kerkhov, WHO epidemiologist, at a press conference in June.

By: BBC News.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

Coronavirus has been diagnosed at three new mink fur businesses. It concerns two companies in Noord-Brabant (De Rips and Vlierden) and one in Limburg (Ven-Zelderheide), reports the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Quality. …

In total, the coronavirus has now been diagnosed at 40 mink fur farms.