In a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food published this Sunday, November 22, the authorities announced that they had ordered the slaughter of 1,000 mink in a farm in Eure-et-Loir. If Denmark has already slaughtered nearly 17 million mink after the discovery of a variant virus, this is a first in France.
Covid-19 and contaminations of mink farms
To date, mink is the only known species to cause inter-species contamination. Even if ANSES recently recalled in an opinion that animals did not play a role in the spread of Covid-19, several countries have already reported cases of contamination of mink farms as is the case in Denmark. , Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece and the United States. Isolated cases have also been reported in Italy and Spain. The most affected country is Denmark, where the presence of a variant virus was recently discovered.
Following the alerts launched by the foreign authorities, the services of the Ministry of Health have set up, from May 2020, surveillance systems and the strengthening of biosecurity measures in French mink farms. More recently, since mid-November and as part of a scientific program led by ANSES, analyzes have been carried out in the four farms present in the territory.
1000 mink were slaughtered in Eure-et-Loir
The analyzes, aimed at defining the health status of the farms, revealed that the virus was circulating in one of the mink farms: that of Eure-et-Loir. This is a first in France. In a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food published this Sunday, November 22, 2020, we learn that the slaughter of ” all of the 1000 animals still present on the farm and the disposal of products from these animals “, Was ordered” in order to protect public health against Covid-19 “.
We also learn that another farm is unharmed and that analyzes are still in progress in the last two farms. The results will be announced during the week. Likewise, a sequencing analysis of the virus detected in the Eure-et-Loir farm is in progress to determine whether it presents a variant virus.
As regards the employees of the farms, the press release indicates that “ the results of the analyzes carried out on the breeders of the 4 farms were all negative. Reinforced surveillance has been put in place for 4 people in connection with the contaminated farm and new analyzes are underway. “.
