A study suggests that the virus that killed 4% of the animals on the farm and forced the slaughter of 52,000 could be spread by wild birds before mutating
The bird flu outbreak at a mink farm in Galicia was able to jump from wild birds and ended up mutating on the farm, where it began to be transmitted from mink to mink. This is suggested by an investigation carried out by Spanish scientists, and published in Eurosurveillance, the European Journal on Surveillance, Epidemiology, Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, which has set off alarm bells because of the emergence of more lethal virus variants that can even jump to the humans.
In the context of the most damaging avian flu epidemic in history, which has forced the slaughter of 50 million birds in Europe, the study sheds light on one of the most fearsome recorded outbreaks, which occurred in Spain. At the beginning of autumn, seagulls and gannets killed by bird flu appeared on the Galician coast and days later, American mink began to die with hemorrhagic pneumonia at the Carral farm, a few kilometers from La Coruña. The virus was transmitted between these animals and their death rate stood at 4.3% in one week. On October 18, the Xunta de Galicia ordered the slaughter of the 52,000 mink from this fur farm.
The role of minks in this outbreak is at the center of the alert. These animals can catch both bird flu and human flu, which makes them “a shaker”, according to the authors of the research. In the Galician case, the minks have been infected with the A(H5N1) bird flu virus, “highly pathogenic”.
“Given the concern about the susceptibility of mink to emerging viruses such as the H5N1 virus and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes covid-19), it is necessary to reinforce the culture of biosafety and bioprotection in this system. breeding and promoting the application of ad hoc surveillance programs for influenza A viruses and other zoonotic pathogens on a global scale”, claim the researchers, led by the Spanish Montserrat Agüero, technical director of the Animal Health Area of the Ministry of Agriculture .
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