English Section

SARS-CoV2 virus found at mink farm came from humans

14.02.2021 10:30
The coronavirus strain which was discovered in minks at a farm in northern Poland at the beginning of the month has been identified as one which affects humans, the Agriculture Ministry has said.
Zdjęcie ilustracyjne
Zdjęcie ilustracyjneLucky Business/shutterstock.com

The ministry said that the tests carried out have shown this not to be one of the extremely dangerous SARS-Cov2 variants. The virus was examined at the laboratory of the National Veterinary Research Institute in Puławy and is not similar to the variants discovered in the UK, South Africa, Brazil ot Italy.

However, the head of the Institute, Krzysztof Niemczuk, reported that it does have the features of the virus found in humans. As one of the mink farm workers had tested positive for SARS-CoV2, "it is highly probable that he had infected the minks, and not vice versa", he said.

More than half of the minks tested (39 out of 70 samples) were found to have SARS-CoV2.
 

Source: IAR