#17,561
Yesterday morning, in Finland: Food Authority Orders More Measures To Combat Avian Flu, I wrote at considerable length about the pandemic risks of fur farming (and mink farming in particular).
It's a topic we've visited many times over the past 15 years, a journey which I summarized in last January's That Touch of Mink Flu (2023 Edition).
Recent spillovers of H5N1 and SARS-CoV-2 into farmed animals (e.g. mink, foxes, raccoon dogs, etc.) and wildlife (e.g. deer, rats, other peridomestic animals) have only heightened concerns. A few examples include:
Eurosurveillance: Cryptic SARS-CoV-2 Lineage Identified on Two Mink Farms In Poland
Viruses: Zoonotic Animal Influenza Virus and Potential Mixing Vessel Hosts
We've seen a number of cautionary reports published over they years warning of the dangers of spillovers and the risks posed by fur farming.
One Health Adv.: Mink Infection With Influenza A Viruses - An Ignored Intermediate Host?
Denmark SSI: Low to Moderate Risk of Human Infection With Bird Flu From Mink
But yesterday two well known UK virologists (Barclay & Peacock) weighted in with an unusually blunt, well-reasoned, and sobering opinion piece of the risks of mink farming in the journal PNAS.
Highly recommended.
I've only posted the opening paragraph, so follow the link to read the article in its entirety.
Thomas P. Peacock and Wendy S. Barclay
July 19, 2023
120 (30) e2303408120
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2303408120
Mink are widely farmed for fur, including intensive farming in Europe, North America, and China. Much has been written about the cruel, unnecessary, and, some say, unethical practice of fur farming. Less has been discussed regarding the dangers to human and animal health that fur farming poses, mink farming in particular.
As with any intensive farming, fur farming takes place in a high-density animal environment that allows for rapid spread of viruses with pandemic potential—and for virus adaptation to animals that would be unlikely to occur in nature. This is particularly true for normally solitary, undomesticated carnivores, such as mink. Here, we argue that mink, more so than any other farmed species, pose a risk for the emergence of future disease outbreaks and the evolution of future pandemics.
While the warning signs are there, the $64 question is whether anyone is listening.
