Denmark drops plans for mass mink cull after Covid mutation fears | The Guardian - Sophie Kevany & Tom Carstensen:
November 9, 2020 - "Last Wednesday the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said all the country’s mink would be culled due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.
"But opposition to the move swiftly emerged. 'Massive doubts over whether this cull is properly scientifically based [have] come to light now,' said Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the leader of Denmark’s largest opposition party, Venstre. 'At the same time the government is taking away the livelihood of a large number of people without actually having the legal rights to do so.' Frederik Waage, law professor at the University of Southern Denmark, told Danish national paper Berlingske the cull order was 'illegal'.
"Opposition to the cull focuses on the fact that Denmark’s’ public health agency, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), had not found evidence of the mutated strain for more than a month, while a number of Danish and international experts questioned whether the mutation was dangerous.
"In neighbouring Sweden, 10 mink farms have been identified as having Covid-19 outbreaks. .. but Benny Andersson, CEO of Swedish animal rights organisation, Djurens Rätt,... is not expecting any cull in Sweden. 'That’s mainly because the ongoing pelting season means most animals, other than breeding stock, are already being killed,' he said.... Poland and Finland are reported to be free of Covid-19 on mink farms, while in the Netherlands fur farming will effectively end this year. In Ireland, a tiny player in the mink sector, testing at the country’s three farms is reported to have begun....
"In the US, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presentation last week said 11 mink farms had Covid-19 outbreaks.... US veterinary NGO the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association said the apparent rapid mutation of the virus in mink, and the lack of a cull, was both a public health and a welfare risk.... Joanna Swabe, a policy adviser for Humane Society International, agreed.... Swabe said that not carrying out culls on farms where Covid-19 has been detected in the mink meant the continued existence of 'a pool of non-essential animals that could pose a risk to public health'."
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