On Nov 5, the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark announced the culling of all mink in the country, estimated to total approximately 17 million animals.
The circulation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had already been observed several months earlier, but the reason for the policy change was an alert from the Danish National Institute of Public Health, which found that viruses had spilled back from mink farms into the community, and that during the passage through mink the virus had accumulated mutations in the spike protein gene.
Publication by Marion Koopmans: read the publication
