Estimation of the Age and Reproductive Performance of Wild-Born and Escaped Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild in Denmark

Pagh, Sussie; Pertoldi, Cino; Chriél, Mariann; Petersen, Heidi Huus; Jensen, Trine Hammer; Madsen, Sussi; Kraft, David C.; Schou, Toke Munk; Hansen, Mette Sif

doi:10.3390/ani11010162

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Thus, it is included in the Spanish Catalogue of Exotic Invasive Species through Royal decree 630/2013 ( , access on 24 April 2021), and is subject to eradication through trapping and culling [ 32 ]. Feral American mink populations, founded by farm-escaped animals living in the wild, have proven self-sustaining without the need for an additional influx of escaped individuals [ 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Description of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Feral American Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild

Aguiló-Gisbert

Padilla-Blanco

Lizana

et al. 2021

Animals

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causal agent of COVID-19, is considered a pathogen of animal origin that is mainly transmitted from human to human. Several animal species can be naturally or experimentally infected by SARS-CoV-2, with compelling evidence that mink is highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Human-to-mink infection cases have been reported and there are also suggestions that mink-to-human infection occurs. Mink infections have been reported to date only on fur farms, except for one infected free- ranging wild mink near a Utah (USA) fur farm, which suggests a transmission pathway from farms to wild mink. We now report the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in 2 of 13 feral dark brown American mink (Neovison vison) trapped in the Valencian Community (Eastern Spain), during an invasive species trapping campaign. They were trapped in riverbeds in sparsely inhabited rural areas known to harbor self-sustained feral mink populations. The closest fur farm is about 20 km away. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected by two-step RT-PCR in these animals’ mesenteric lymph nodes and was confirmed by sequencing a 397-nucleotide amplified region of the S gene, yielding identical sequences in both animals. A molecular phylogenetic analysis was run on this sequence, which was found to correspond to the consensus SARS-CoV-2 sequence from Wuhan. Our findings appear to represent the first example of SARS-CoV-2 acquired in the wild by feral mink in self-sustained populations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Description of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Feral American Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild

Aguiló-Gisbert

Padilla-Blanco

Lizana

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…Necropsy data collected include sex, body length (from tip of nose to start of tail, tail length (start of tail to last vertebra), and fur colour. A recent study has shown that captive-born mink older than 4 months can be separated from wild-born mink using body length, and mink in this study were divided accordingly [ 1 ]. Males with a body length below 43 cm and females with a body length below 39 cm were considered to be wild born following the method used in former studies [ 1 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All feral mink in Denmark are American mink ( Neogale vison ) that have escaped from fur farms. The feral mink population in Denmark consists of two subpopulations of mink; wild-born and captive-born mink [ 1 ]. The number of captive-born mink caught by trappers shows a substantial annual supplementation of farmed mink into the feral population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then, mink have escaped farms into the wild, and a feral population has been established in Denmark, with the first documentation of feral mink in Denmark in the 1950’s [ 3 , 4 ]. Previous Danish studies have found that 80% of the feral mink caught by trappers in the years 1998–2000 and 25–30% of mink caught during the winters of 2014–2018 were mink recently escaped from farms [ 1 , 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The possible impact of escaped captive American mink (Neogale vison) on the population of feral mink in Denmark

Andersen,

Rørbæk,

Pertoldi

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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The Danish feral mink (Neogale vison) population can be divided into wild-born and captive-born mink newly escaped from a farm. The impact of the captive-born mink on the population of feral population is unknown. Captive-born mink has lately been estimated to make up 25–30% of the feral mink population. In December 2020 Danish mink farms were decommissioned until January 2023. The aim of this study was to: 1) Examine whether a supplementation of farmed mink into the feral mink population influence the population growth and extinction rate of the feral mink, 2) Investigate which parameters affect the viability in feral mink populations the most. The age and mortality of 351 mink and the reproduction of 85 adult females culled by hunters from 2019–2022 were determined in three distinct geographic areas of Denmark (Jutland, Zealand, and Bornholm). VORTEX simulations were used to model the population viability and to simulate the impact of a supplementation of captive-born mink into the wild population. Simulations show that changes by 30% in the parameters: fecundity, percentages of breeding females and mortality influenced population size influenced the final population size significantly. The initial population size and inbreeding did not affect the population growth significantly. The simulations showed that the mink population in the regions of Jutland and Zealand could go extinct within 15 to 30 years without any supplementation of captive-born mink to the feral population. The population on Bornholm will however remain stable with current levels of mortality and reproduction even without supplementation of captive mink.

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“…Thus, it is included in the Spanish Catalogue of Exotic Invasive Species through Royal decree 630/2013 (available at https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2013/08/02/630 ) and subject to eradication through trapping and culling [31]. Wild born mink populations, founded by farm-escaped animals, have proved to be self-sustaining without a continuous influx of captive-born escaped individuals [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Description of Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Wild American Minks (<em>Neovison vison</em>)

Aguiló-Gisbert¹,

Padilla-Blanco²,

Lizana³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19 , is considered a pathogen with animal origin, mainly transmitted human to human. It has been experimentally and naturally demonstrated that several animals can be infected by SARS-CoV-2. There are strong evidences that minks are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, since several cases of human to mink infection have been reported, and it has been suggested mink to human infection exists, which so far it is the most reliable example of a zoonotic event of COVID-19 . However, all these cases reported are form mink farms, with the exception of one case in the USA in which the virus was detected in a mink located in the wild, but it was demonstrated that the animal was infected on a fur farm. In the present work, we have detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in two wild American minks (Neovison vison) in Valencian Community (Eastern Spain) during invasive species trapping campaigns. The animals were trapped from areas known for harbouring self-sustained populations, far away from the nearest fur farm. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in mesenteric lymph nodes samples by RT-PCR. A partial region of the Spike protein gene was amplified and sequence obtaining a 397 nt size sequence. Phylogenetic analysis shown that both sequences were identical to the consensus variant SARS CoV-2 sequence (from Wuhan). This research describes the first infection report of a true wild American mink not related to infected fur farms or direct contact with humans, which is believed to be the first example of wild animals in which SARS-CoV-2 has been detected.

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Estimation of the Age and Reproductive Performance of Wild-Born and Escaped Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild in Denmark

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

First Description of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Feral American Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild

First Description of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Feral American Mink (Neovison vison) Caught in the Wild

The possible impact of escaped captive American mink (Neogale vison) on the population of feral mink in Denmark

First Description of Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Wild American Minks (<em>Neovison vison</em>)

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