Coronavirus at another mink farm; 26 NL farms infected

SARS-CoV-2 was found in mink on a farm in Oploo, the government announced on Monday. The coronavirus infection was found by an early warning monitoring system, in which mink cadavers are tested weekly for the virus. The 3,500 animals on the farm will be culled as soon as possible.

This is the 26th mink farm in the Netherlands to be contaminated by the coronavirus. The mink on the other farms have all been culled.

Responsible Ministers Hugo de Jonge of Public Health and Carola Schouten of Agriculture recently tightened hygiene measures at mink farms, given the ever rising number of infections. Mink farm workers now have to wear personal protective equipment like face masks. There is also a national transport ban in place, and no visitors are allowed at mink stables.

Given the several weeks long incubation period of SARS-CoV-2, the Ministries believe that some new infections will still be found in the coming weeks. If there are still new infections after mid-August, the government will have to consider proactively culling mink on fur farms, instead of doing so only after an infection was confirmed, the Ministers said last week.