Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Farmed Mink (Neovison vison), Poland

Abstract

I dentifying possible pathogen hosts and studying transmission dynamics of hosts in their populations are crucial steps in controlling zoonotic diseases. The origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is probably bats (1), but the potential intermediate host has not yet been confi rmed. SARS-CoV-2 seems to readily jump from humans to other animal species, particularly carnivores (i.e., dogs, cats, ferrets, lions, pumas) (2,3), raising concerns about new animal sources of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (4,5).SARS-CoV-2 infections in mink were reported from farms in Denmark and the Netherlands and later in other regions (6-9) (Figure 1). Because of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in mink farms and their appearance in the surrounding communities, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization have emphasized the need for surveying the host-animal interface by collaboration among virologists and epidemiologists to track and characterize viral mutations (11). After SARS-CoV-2 infections in mink in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture decided to cull the mink from all farms. In Denmark, the Danish National Institute of Public Health announced the culling of all 17 million mink in the country after the virus had passed back from the mink farms into the human community. The data available for Denmark on these mink-associated SARS-CoV-2 variants suggest that these variants can spread rapidly on mink farms and in nearby human communities (12). However, humans infected with the mink-related variants do not appear to have more severe clinical symptoms than those infected with non-mink-related variants (9).Poland is the second-largest producer of mink pelts in Europe. Poland has 810 fur animal farms, including those for foxes, mink, raccoons, dogs, and chinchillas. The 354 active mink farms in Poland contain ≈6.3 million mink. During 2019, mink farmers in Poland sold 8.5 million mink pelts (13,14).As of May 5, 2021, Poland had recorded 2,838,180 COVID-19 cases and 70,336 total related deaths (15). Considering the recent reports of SARS-CoV-2 infections in mink in other countries in Europe and the high incidence of human SARS-CoV-2 infections in Poland, we monitored SARS-CoV-2 in mink on 1 farm in Pomorskie Voivodeship in northern Poland.

Experimental and natural infections of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 in pets and wild and farm animals

“…In addition, SARS-CoV-2 infected minks were reported in Denmark around June 2020 [111]. Similar findings were reported in several countries in Europe, which included Spain in July 2020 [112,113],…”

“…Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.15/March-2022/6.pdf Italy in August 2020 [112,113], Sweden in October 2020, Greece, France, Poland, and Lithuania in November 2020, the second infection in a mink farm in Poland on 30 January 2021, and in Latvia in April 2021 [58,112,113]. In the Netherlands and Denmark, the virus spread rapidly among minks, resulting in respiratory diseases and increased mortality [35,111].…”

Origin and evolutionary analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

“… [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [25] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] .…”

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to animals and potential host adaptation

“…of isolates No. of countries Onward transmission Neovison vison American mink Farmed 928 9 Yes 21 – 23 , 25 , 85 , 86 Odocoileus virginianus White-tailed deer Wild 95 1 Yes 32 – 35 , 87 Felis catus domesticus Domestic cat Pet/stray 76 13 Yes 88 – 91 Canis lupus familiaris Domestic dog Pet/stray 40 6 Unlikely 92 Panthera spp. Big cats Captive 87 6 Yes 36 , 38 Mesocricetus auratus Golden hamster Pet 20 3 Yes 93 Animal taxa that were associated with <10 isolates were excluded from this table for brevity.…”