Corona Daily 267: Denmark’s Mink Variant

Last week’s news from Denmark may either be very significant, or may turn out to be nothing at all.

In ‘Bye Bye Mink’ I had talked about minks getting infected and dying on the breeding farms. Netherlands has decided to end the mink industry in 2021. Six countries had earlier reported outbreaks on mink farms: Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the USA. Yesterday, Greece joined with infections on two farms.

Denmark is the world’s second-largest exporter of mink fur, after China. It accounts for nearly half of the 35 million minks farmed in Europe.

Initially, Denmark had decided to cull (kill) all minks on the infected farms. Then on 7 July, it decided to isolate them with strict hygiene rules. A humane decision, but probably a blunder. The virus struck back with renewed vigour. By 6 November, 216 farms were infected.

The infected minks have now passed on the virus to 214 humans, a reverse zoonosis. The age range of the infected Danes is 7 to 79 years. Twelve cases have a unique variant.

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Years ago, I had read about a linguistic experiment. A reputed university had asked various bilingual translators to translate a story sequentially. For example, the English-Mandarin translation was followed by Mandarin-Spanish, Spanish-Hindi, Hindi-Arabic, Arabic-French, and back into French-English. The translators were professional and well qualified. Still, the first and the final English versions were dramatically different, in some parts the story becoming unrecognizable.

It is similar with the coronavirus. If it was transmitted from bats to humans (not confirmed), then humans to minks, and back from minks to humans, it can change significantly. The mutation may not be more contagious or lethal, but it may make the vaccines ineffective. The worst-case scenario is the Denmark Mink variant starting to spread globally, and causing another pandemic. It’s too early to panic, Denmark hasn’t yet shared the variant’s genetic data with scientists. If the variant is not too different, vaccines can be tweaked. Flu vaccines are altered every year to counter mutations. And Denmark will try to kill the variant before it leaves Denmark’s borders.

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With that in mind, Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s young PM, ordered culling of all 15 million minks across the country. Skins and furs from healthy minks from non-infected farms can be pelted and sold, but all other minks must be buried without skinning. Military would be used for the massive CO gassing operation as well as the mass burials.

Just as the military and farmers were getting ready for the mink extinction project, the opposition objected. Like in most countries, Denmark’s government and parliament are at loggerheads. Frederiksen’s actions were considered illegal. She apologized. It may take some time before compensation to farmers is agreed, the data evaluated and a bill passed to make the culling legal. Meanwhile, the risk exists.

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Terrified by the news, other governments have issued strict rules for arrivals from Denmark. UK refused entry to lorry drivers coming from Denmark. (Good rehearsal for January). All cars, buses and trains from Denmark have been halted within their borders. Plans of the international football teams are disrupted, with eight Premier League stars affected.

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Minks belong to the weasel family, that along with ferrets can easily get infected with the coronavirus. Their crowded conditions are ideal for virus spreading. They can become quite sick and die. Fortunately, no other animal has passed on the Covid virus back to humans. If pigs or chicken were to contract it, or transmit it back to humans, the consequences would be apocalyptic.

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Do we learn our lessons? Not really. Palm Civet was a suspect source in SARS 2003. It probably was an intermediary between bats and humans. In different parts of Asia, palm civets are now farmed intensively, fed coffee beans, and the beans collected from its faeces make the world’s most expensive coffee, kopi luwak.

Ravi