Medical research

Findings challenge standard understanding of COVID-19 infection

Some viruses move between species. For example, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spill over from humans to mink, an agricultural species, and then spill back from mink to humans. Spillback is a concern because ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

How worried should the world be about bird flu in humans?

A highly infectious strain of avian influenza is tearing through commercial and backyard poultry flocks, causing egg prices to rise as sick chickens are culled across the United States.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Mink farming poses low COVID risk: Danish health agency

A resumption of Denmark's banned mink farming poses little risk of COVID virus variants emerging, the country's public health institute said Tuesday in a report that could lead to the industry's revival.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

COVID widespread among Iowa deer

(HealthDay)—The discovery that up to 80% of white-tailed deer in Iowa may be infected with COVID-19 has scientists worried that the animals could become a reservoir for variants that could come back to haunt humans.

Vaccination

Finland to start giving Covid jab to minks

Finland will begin vaccinating minks on fur farms against COVID-19 after authorities granted temporary approval for an experimental vaccine, the country's regulator said Friday.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Denmark incinerates minks culled over virus fears

Denmark on Thursday kicked off the grisly task of unearthing and incinerating minks that were hastily buried after a mass culling sparked by fears of a mutated coronavirus strain, authorities said.

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Mink

There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and the otters and ferrets. The American Mink is larger and more adaptable than the European Mink. It is sometimes possible to distinguish between the European and American mink; a European Mink always has a large white patch on its upper lip, while the American species sometimes does not. Thus, any mink without such a patch can be identified with certainty as an American Mink, but an individual with a patch cannot be certainly identified without looking at the skeleton. Taxonomically, both American and European Minks used to be placed in the same genus Mustela ("Weasels"), but most recently the American Mink has been re-classified as belonging to its own genus Neovison.

The American Mink's fur has been highly prized for its use in clothing, with hunting giving way to farming. Its treatment has also been a focus of animal rights and animal welfare activism. American Mink have found their way into the wild in Europe (including Great Britain) and South America, after being released from mink farms by animal rights activists or otherwise escaping from captivity.

American Mink are believed by some to have contributed to the decline of the less hardy European Mink through competition (though not through hybridization—native European mink are in fact closer to polecats[disambiguation needed ] than to their North American cousins). Trapping is used to control or eliminate feral American Mink populations.

Mink oil is used in some medical products and cosmetics, as well as to treat, preserve and waterproof leather.

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