Speranza suspends mink farming

(ANSA) - ROME, 23 NOV - Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Monday suspended mink farming across Italy after seven countries reported mink-related Sars-CoV-2 mutations in humans.
    The suspension lasts until the end of February when a new assessment of the epidemiological situation will be made, the health ministry said.
    The measure is aimed at averting COVID transmission via mink farming.
    The new mutations are identified as Covid-19 mink variants as they have repeatedly been found in mink and now in humans as well, the Guardian reported last week.
    Uncertainty around the implications of the discovery of a Covid-19 mink variant in humans led Denmark, the world's largest mink fur producer, to launch a nationwide cull earlier this month.
    The cull was sparked by research from Denmark's public health body, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy.
    Denmark, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, the Faroe Islands, Russia and the US have all reported cases of mink-related mutations. (ANSA).