Mink Farms Identified As Animal Reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2

The U.S. CDC report Volume 27, Number 2, February 2021, reviews a new study that found a high proportion of mink on farms can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 within a few days, which may provide major virus exposure to persons working with mink.

Published on November 18, 2020, the infections described in this report occurred with little clinical disease or increase in death, making it difficult to detect the spread of infection. Therefore, mink farms could represent a serious, unrecognized animal reservoir for SARS-CoV-2.

However, 'there is no evidence for the spread of the coronavirus outside of farm buildings, either in Denmark or in the Netherlands, except by infected persons. But, there appears to be some risk of virus transmission to persons working with infected mink as well as for their contacts and thus, indirectly, for the public,' concluded these researchers.