The new coronavirus has been found in mink at two farms in northern Greece, an agriculture ministry official said on Friday. The animals at the farm, 2500 in total, will be killed.
The strain found in the mink had not mutated from that found in humans, the official said. The breeder at one of the farms, in the northerly Kozani region, also tested positive for the virus, and tests were being done on other workers.
Denmark is mass killing 17 million mink after a mutated coronavirus was found in mink farms there. In Spain, The Netherlands and the United States, mink have also been killed because they were infected with COVID-19.
Animal welfare organizations are hoping that this is the end of fur farming worldwide.
”The current pandemic has made it clear that we have to take the danger of transmitting this disease very seriously. Transmission of the disease is of danger not only to the local farms but to the whole world,” Esben Sloth, head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Denmark said after the Danish government ordered the killing of all the mink in the country.
Mink have a great need for hunting, swimming and diving in water. For the fur fashion industry, they’re kept in small cages. The animals become so stressed over their unnatural life in a cage at a mink farm that many develop compulsive behaviors and hurt themselves or their cubs in frustration.
Greece’s population of mink is estimated at hundreds of thousands.
