Minks
Polands agriculture minister denied reports on Thursday that cases of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus have been detected in the countrys mink population.
Mink are dark-colored, semi aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera Neovison and Mustela, and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters and ferrets.
On Wednesday, a team of researchers from Gdansk Medical University reported that the presence of the coronavirus was confirmed among eight out of 91 minks tested at a mink farm in northern Poland.
However, tests conducted by the state veterinary institute, in response to these reports, did not confirm the presence of the pathogen, Agriculture Minister Grzegorz Puda said, in comments reported by the PAP agency.
At present there are no confirmed cases of the coronavirus at mink farms in Poland, but the business will be closely monitored, the head of the state veterinary institute Krzysztof Niemczuk said on Thursday.
Since May, 280 fur farms have been examined with no coronavirus cases confirmed, according to the countrys chief veterinarian Bogdan Konopka, there are 840 fur farms in Poland, including 340 mink farms.
At the same time, Poland is preparing legislation which would regulate the potential culling of animals and compensation for farmers, the agriculture minister said.
Infections among minks had earlier been confirmed in other European countries, including Sweden or Denmark. (dpa/NAN)
Source: NAN News