Eli CahanScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.COVID-19 has now struck mink farms in the United States, too.
Yesterday, roughly 10 days after farmers in Utah reported a rash of mink deaths, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the SARS-CoV-2 virus had infected the weasellike mammals, which are raised for their fur.Infections of mink have already been documented in other countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain.
In June, authorities in these countries gassed hundreds of thousands of animals, concerned that the mink could harbor the virus indefinitely, enabling infections to persist among farm animals—and potentially spread to humans.In Utah, the.