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Mink mutation

211 replies

Lilybet1980 · 05/11/2020 22:45

Anyone know how worried we should be about the mink outbreaks in Denmark?

OP posts:
Chickenandrice · 06/11/2020 14:08

I am feeling a bit scared reading this story. It feels a bit end of the world ish. 200 people have caught the virus from monks

Chickenandrice · 06/11/2020 14:08

*minks

MelodramPatheticism · 06/11/2020 14:20

What about the population of wild mink here in the UK?

Can you imagine what would happen if these mutations started to affect domestic cats and dogs?

Chickenandrice · 06/11/2020 14:29

I must admit that was my thought about pets melodrampathetisim. I wonder what the chances are that this could happen. Does the virus jump easier to minks is there something special about them? Or is it just a chance? And that this could just as easily have been pet cats and dogs?

Unsure33 · 06/11/2020 14:33

I see the government has very quickly put Denmark on the quarantine list so I think they must be worried .

Wonder if this is partly the reason for lockdown but they did not want to alarm the public ?!

Chickenandrice · 06/11/2020 14:35

I would have though we should not be allowing people in from denmark? The quarantine procedure in the uk just doesn’t seem good enough

Unsure33 · 06/11/2020 14:39

@tobee

Thank you for the link

Completmentfille · 06/11/2020 16:33

Pretty scary stuff

JacobReesMogadishu · 06/11/2020 16:41

I assume any wild/escaped mink in the UK won't catch it as they don't get close enough to people to catch it.

What about UK mink farms? If its happened in Denmark it could happen here? And if its happened with mink could it happen with any intensively farmed animal where there's a lot of human contact.

Intensive shed farmed cattle? Pigs? Chickens? One worker infects the animals and then with a mutated virus they infect us. We might all be vegi by next year if we have to cull everything... Though probably too late already.

dementedpixie · 06/11/2020 16:47

UK doesn't have mink farms any more - banned on 2000. There are a lot in the wild apparently though

JacobReesMogadishu · 06/11/2020 17:14

That's good news. Yes, we have wild mink locally. Escaped and now have a breeding population.

Chickenandrice · 06/11/2020 18:21

The videos on the news of the mink farms are awful ☹️

Aridane · 06/11/2020 18:26

@Dumpypumpy

Yeah we slag china off for the wild meat industry causing virus jumps, but this has got to be on the same level.
Just what I was thinking.

Was reading on the mink mutation and came here to see there was thread.

Aridane · 06/11/2020 18:27

@Beebityboo

We should honestly close the border. If this strain isn't responding to anti bodies I honestly can't comprehend the trouble we'd be in. Hopefully the (horrible) cull will bring it under control.
I think Denmark needs to be closing its borders (after culling of the minks)
Aridane · 06/11/2020 18:27

@Splodgetastic

Didn’t the Spanish mutation that holidaymakers brought back originate in mink farms?
No - something to do with cow farmers (IIRC)
Aridane · 06/11/2020 18:31

@MelodramPatheticism

What about the population of wild mink here in the UK?

Can you imagine what would happen if these mutations started to affect domestic cats and dogs?

Tests on cats in Hong Hong in households where people have died from covid show a shocking level of transmission from humans to cats (unclear though whether cats can reinfect humans)
Aridane · 06/11/2020 18:33

Only disgusting people would be seen in mink. Consumerism spoils the planet. Stop it.
Natural fabrics are more eco friendly than fakes, which shed contaminating particles on every wash, then don't biodegrade in landfill

I’m not sure I ageee - the working conditions and ecological impact of cotton growing can be absolutely horrific .

Completmentfille · 06/11/2020 19:02

How worried should we be about this, does anyone know?

Aridane · 06/11/2020 19:06

Denmark is worried, very worried. I think we should be too

Completmentfille · 06/11/2020 19:09

Feel like this is going to tip me over the edge

Doesn't seem any point in carrying on any more

Aridane · 06/11/2020 19:11

From John Naish article on the ‘science’

History shows that viruses which evolve in animals and jump species to infect humans are among humankind's most dangerous and enduring foes.

Pandemic flu, for example, originated in poultry and pigs. Measles came originally from cows.

Newly-emerging killers such as Ebola, SARS and Covid-19 came from bats. Once the viruses learn how to 'shape-shift' in this way, they can go on to acquire even more lethal powers.

The concern comes down to this: when the virus jumps from humans to other animals, it can effectively learn deadly new tricks that may make it more infectious, more deadly and might enable the virus to defeat the best drugs or vaccines. This learning process is called 'viral recombination'.

It happens when two different virus strains infect the same animal cell, co-mix, then produce new viruses that have some genes from both 'parents'.

Thus, instead of finding a vaccine to defeat Covid-19 once and for all, we could end up playing an endless game of smack the rat (or cat, or mink, or bat, hamster, ferret, or macaque — they've all been found Covid-infected), as the virus continuously mutates, shifts species then returns to re-infect us again.

It is in intensive farming — such as the mink industry — that this threat becomes most alarming.

When a virus spreads rapidly through a large, dense pop- ulation (animal or human) it can evolve into ever-deadlier forms even faster.

Because, in this situation, it does not matter if the virus kills its host extremely quickly (and so reduces its own chance of survival) — it can easily jump across to another of the same species, and simply claim victim after victim in a vast murderous spree.

Completmentfille · 06/11/2020 19:13

Not helpful

Aridane · 06/11/2020 19:14

@Completmentfille

Feel like this is going to tip me over the edge

Doesn't seem any point in carrying on any more

Oh, don’t feel like that Sad - Denmark are proactively culling the mink population and quarantining the affected areas
Aridane · 06/11/2020 19:15

@Completmentfille

Not helpful
I posted before I saw your post
Gruffaloandmouse · 06/11/2020 19:24

Great...I’m really wishing I hadn’t read this now.

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