Eight people have tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak at a mink farm in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver.
Fraser Health Authority said in a written statement Sunday the farm operators and staff who tested positive are isolating, as are their close contacts.
The statement did not say how the virus was transmitted, but employees are undergoing screening and officials are conducting contract tracing. Animals at the farm are also being tested for the virus.
In the meantime, the mink farm has been ordered to restrict the transport of animal, products and goods from the farm, the health authority statement said.
Thousands of minks were culled in Denmark last month after 11 people were sickened by a mutated version of the coronavirus that had been observed among the animals.
The Danish government decided to cull all of Denmark’s roughly 15 million minks, including healthy ones outside the northern part of the country where infections were found. It has also banned mink farming until the end of 2021.
According to the World Health Organization, 214 human cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Denmark since June that have SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with farmed minks.
The WHO bulletin says the minks were infected following exposure to infected humans. “Minks can act as a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, passing the virus between them, and pose a risk for virus spill-over from mink to humans,” said the report dated Nov. 6.
It identified six countries that had reported SARS-CoV-2 in farmed minks, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States.
In Canada, the highest numbers of fur farms are located in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the Canada Mink Breeders Association.
The association states says 1.7 million farmed mink were produced in Canada in 2018, mainly in rural communities and the industry employs more than 60,000 Canadians.
Mink farms in British Columbia are concentrated in the Fraser Valley, according to a 2014 agriculture ministry briefing.
According to the statement, Fraser Health and WorkSafeBC have inspected the site and are working with the farm on its COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
WorkSafeBC is also reaching out to other mink farms in B.C. to discuss their COVID-19 safety plans and measures to prevent transmission.
