Covid-19 jumps to more wild animals in the USA!

  FIRST WILD ANIMAL WITH COVID-19

“On December 13, (2020) the US Department of Agriculture reported that a wild mink in Utah tested positive for the coronavirus.” Brian Resnick wrote this in a wide-ranging article titled “A wild mink in Utah has Covid-19.  Veterinarians fear this is just the beginning.” 



“It started in nature. A coronavirus that originated in bats has wound up in humans causing the Covid-19 pandemic. And it can go back to nature.” Resnick wrote. “The SARS-CoV-2 virus can jump again, from humans, back into animals, back into wildlife, where it can wait, mutate and change. Perhaps, years from now, it can infect people again.”

In the article he looked at which animals can catch COVID-19, which animals cannot - - and why it matters.

“A mink in Utah has become the first known wild animal to become infected with COVID-19 the US Department of Agriculture USDA said Monday,” was how MSN News (Business Insider) broke the story on Wednesday, December 16, 2020.  “To our knowledge this is the first free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS CoV-2” the USDA said.

“COVID-19 has been found in pets and animals held in zoos, as well as thousands of mink farms around the world. Some mink have developed mutated strains of the virus which they have in some cases infected humans with, but these strains do not seem more harmful than the ones humans are already dealing with.” 

Since August over 15,000 farmed mink in the USA have been killed because of fears that the virus might jump to humans. The biggest outbreaks were in Utah. On the other side of the Atlantic, in Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, Ireland, and Spain millions of mink were culled earlier this year to stop the outbreak on the mink farms.

It was while testing wildlife around infected mink farms in Utah, Michigan, and Wisconsin to see whether the virus had spread, the USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service found the case.

“This is the first free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS COV-2” the USDA said. The information was posted on the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ ProMed website. 

The strain of the virus was just like the ones found in mink farms in Utah. There was no evidence that large populations of wildlife were infected with the virus.

A geneticist at the University of Basel, Switzerland said strains of the mutated virus have developed in some mink. These strains have infected some humans but “these strains do not seem different or more harmful than the ones humans are already dealing with.”

Was the strain found in the wild mink a mutated strain of the virus? We do not have the answer to that question.

COVID-19 has been found in other animals. Last Friday, December 11,2020 a five year old snow leopard named “NeeCee” tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 “the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans.” The USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories said this is the first snow leopard in the USA to test positive for SARS-CoV-2.

At this time routine testing of animals is not recommended according to the USDA the report from NewsDesk said.

#MINK #COVID #VIRUS 

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