COPENHAGEN – Denmark and the US are among six countries that have reported new coronavirus cases linked to mink farms, said the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are the other nations to have discovered SARS-CoV-2 in minks, said the United Nations health body in a statement.
Denmark has imposed strict measures in the north after warning that a mutation of the virus has jumped from minks to humans and infected 12 people.
Copenhagen has warned that the mutation could threaten the effectiveness of any future vaccine, and has ordered the slaughter of all 15 million to 17 million minks in the country.
Britain today banned entry to all non-resident foreigners coming from Denmark after the mutation linked to mink farms was found in humans.
Scientists said virus mutations are common and often harmless, and this one does not cause a more severe illness in humans.
But, Danish health authorities have expressed concern that the strain, known as “Cluster 5”, is not inhibited by antibodies to the same degree as the normal virus, which they fear could threaten the efficacy of vaccines that are being developed across the globe.
“Initial observations suggest that the clinical presentation, severity and transmission among those infected are similar to that of other circulating SARS-CoV-2 viruses,” said the WHO statement yesterday.
“However, this variant... the ‘Cluster 5’ variant, had a combination of mutations, or changes that have not been previously observed. The implications of the identified changes in this variant are not yet well understood.”
It said preliminary findings indicate that the mink-associated variant has “moderately decreased sensitivity to neutralising antibodies”.
WHO called for further studies to verify the preliminary findings, and “to understand any potential implications of this finding in terms of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in development”.
“Although the virus is believed to be ancestrally linked to bats, its origin and intermediate host(s) of SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been identified.”
Since June, 214 human cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Denmark, with SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with farmed minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported two days ago. – AFP, November 7, 2020
