ARCHIVED - Galicia mink farm closed after detection of another Covid outbreak

Five animals tested positive for coronavirus at the farm in the province of A Coruña

Almost since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe it has been known that the spread of the infection can be accelerated by the presence of local mink populations both in the wild and in farming concerns, and in Galicia this week another farm has been temporarily closed down by the authorities following an outbreak of Covid at the establishment.

The American mink farm concerned is located in Carral in the province of A Coruña and the regional Department of the Environment reports that the outbreak has been reported to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food. The protocol for the control and eradication of this invasive species, which has been in place since 2004, allowed technical personnel to detect the presence of coronavirus in five animals, all of them asymptomatic, and the samples will now be analysed to establish which strain of SARS-CoV-2 is involved.

There are currently 25 registered mink farms in Galicia with a total of 71,479 reproducing females, and this is the fourth registered Covid-19 outbreak among them over the last 15 months. Anti-mink farming groups have again demanded the immediate closure of all such establishments in the light of the most recent findings, citing over 400 similar instances since the start of the pandemic in 12 countries, 10 of them in Europe.
 

February 2021: Third incident: 3,100 mink from Galician farm affected by Covid-19 gassed

3,100 mink which comprised the total stock of the mink farm ( 2,500 females and 600 males) were killed using gasification.

According to the authorities the likely source of the infection was the two people who look after the mink at the farm: after the outbreak was detected both returned negative PCR tests but positive results in antibody testing, indicating that they had previously been infected although without symptoms.

The tests were carried out during the inspections which form part of the protocols at mink farms throughout the country in order to control possible SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.

The outbreak in A Baña is the second reported at a mink farm in Spain: in July the regional government of Aragón reacted to the worries of mink-borne Covid transmission by ordering the slaughter of 92,700 mink on a farm in La Puebla de Valverde, in the province of Teruel, after a series of tests carried out over a two-month period confirmed contagion.

However, the authorities in Galicia are resisting pressure to close down all of the 25 mink farms in the region, which currently contain a total of 69,186 breeding animals.

Agavi, the Spanish association of Mink Breeders, defends the need for farming to continue and underlines that in the case of A Baña all of the relevant protocols were followed to the letter. In addition, the association points out that in this country all employees are permanent – seasonal workers are not taken on as they were in the past in the Netherlands and Denmark – and that farms are located away from built-up areas and at significant distances from each other.

Before 2020 Denmark was the leading producer of mink in the world and the sector is far smaller in Spain with a total of just 38 mink farms, of which 31 are in Galicia and the remainder in Aragón, the Basque Country, Castilla y León and Valencia. Even so, these concerns produce 750,000 pelts a year but the activity has been targeted by animal rights campaigners on ethical grounds for years.

Before the outbreak in Aragón last year animal welfare rules were in place at mink farms everywhere in Spain except in Galicia, despite the fact that 90 per cent of the country’s production is in the region.
As long ago as June last year the WWF demanded that the Spanish government close down all mink farms immediately, describing them as a “biological time bombs”. In July the Spanish mink breeders’ association accepted the scientific evidence that animals were becoming infected with Covid-19 but not that reverse transmission was taking place, and in August the WWF again demanded that the example of the Netherlands and Denmark be followed in this country.

January 2010: Second incident: 1100 mink culled in northern Spain: Ávila

The farm is in the municipality of Navatalgordo (in the province of Ávila), where one animal has tested positive for Covid-19. Given the high degree of transmission from mink to humans the regional government has ordered that all 1,010 mink at the premises be culled in order to protect public health.

July 2021: First incident. Aragonese government orders slaughter of 92,700 mink

Mink and coronavirus in Europe

Millions of mink have been slaughtered in commercial fur farms not only in Spain but all over Europe after it was discovered that the animals are susceptible to coronavirus contagion and can also transmit the virus back to humans. In Denmark the virus mutated during transmission, leading to the culling of over 10 million mink.