User:Eliseleroi/Mink

Mink Farming Ban in United States of America

In February 2022, the U.S. house passed a ban on commercial mink farming following the global SARS-CoV-2 outbreak on mink farms. The ban was enacted in an effort to protect public health in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mink farms pose the risk of producing SARS-CoV-2 variants that could be transmitted to humans. The cramped living conditions along with the high volume of immunosuppressed mink inhabiting the farms creates a highly hospitable environment for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There have been approximately 6.1 million mink infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with three variants traced back to farms in the U.S, France, and Denmark.

Captive mink are susceptible to catching COVID-19 from humans, and there is a risk of infected mink escaping and infecting other animals in the wild. There is a documented case of this happening in 2021 on a mink farm in Oregon, United States. Another incident occurred in October, 2020 where an outbreak on two farms in northern Wisconsin lead to the deaths of 5,500 animals. In 2020, there was a COVID-19 vaccine being developed for mink and Finn raccoon by the Finnish Fur Breeders’ Association and researchers at the University of Helsinki. Despite these efforts, there continues to be a ban on mink farming in the United States today.