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Mutating COVID and Mink….What’s the Story? |
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Tabitha111
Adviser Group Joined: January 11 2020 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 11640 |
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Posted: November 07 2020 at 6:18am |
By Scott Weese on November 6, 2020 What’s the story with mink in Denmark? Denmark is one of the largest mink producing countries, and numerous farms have been infected (from farm workers). At last report, 216 farms were infected. Crap….mutated virus. That sounds bad. Not necessarily. Viruses mutate all the time. It’s a random event. It’s more likely to occur when there are large numbers of infected individuals….more opportunities for random mutation. So, what’s going on? Five different types of variant strains have been found in mink. These have included mutations in the spike protein. That’s what the virus uses to attach to cells. As part of their broader surveillance, the variant strain has been found in 214/5102 virus isolates from people. 94% of these were in North Jutland, the area where most infected farms are. This mink variant accounted for 40% of the isolates in that area. That’s impressive (and not in a good way). The SSI report says “SSI estimated that continued mink breeding would entail a significant risk of recurrence of a large spread of infection among mink and humans, as seen in Western Denmark in 2020. SSI estimated that this would pose a major risk to public health. Is this really a ‘mink strain’? It’s hard to say. It’s a strain that has been found in mink. It might have mutated in them or it might have mutated in the person that infected them. Most likely, it did evolve in the mink, spread to people, then those people spread it to other people. Also, everyone’s talking about it like it’s one strain. There are actually various strains linked to mink. One is getting the most attention, though. They’re saying hundreds of people are infected with this strain. How does it happen? Are mink everywhere in Denmark? No. But people are. This is a situation where (I assume), most of the transmission is human-human transmission of this virus. It came from people, changed in the mink, but is now back to being transmitted widely be people. So, why do we care? There are a few concerns. Anytime we see movement into another species, that’s a concern. Mink infecting people isn’t the real concern, since few people have contact with mink. The issue is whether mink can complicate control. Related to the above, the last thing we want is this virus in wildlife. Transmission to cats has been found on mink farms in the Netherlands,
Is this mutation a problem for people? Some new outlets have talked about the chance for a ‘new pandemic’. Is that realistic? No. Our current pandemic is doing just fine and isn’t going to be displaced. What does this mean in the big picture? It’s too early to say. Whether this is an academic curiosity, a mutation that shows some interesting epidemiological data but has not health impact or is the sign of a problem is hard to say. What do we do? Relax Avoid kissing mink (most mink would eat your face if you tried, anyway) Continue to pay attention to animals as potential sources of infection Most importantly…..control human-human spread. The best way to prevent the spread of mink-strain COVID is to prevent spread of COVID. And, in the big picture (jumping on my soapbox), this is why I’ve been saying these things since January. |
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Usk
V.I.P. Member Joined: January 26 2020 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 7285 |
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