• Coronavirus: minks, the first possible case of contagion from animals to people

The Dutch government decided this Friday to end the practice of mink farming for the fur industry, after multiple outbreaks of coronavirus were registered on different farms in the Netherlands that forced the slaughter of tens of thousands of these mustelids.

All farms, including those where coronavirus cases have not yet occurred, must close the business in March of next year as the deadline , once the "fur period", which begins in November, has ended and the animals have been stripped of it, as confirmed by sources from the Executive to Dutch television NOS.

This means that the next season will be the last season for the fur industry in the Netherlands , a very controversial activity among the Dutch, which ended in the Supreme Court and was also due to come to an end in 2024 , due to a court ruling that consider this practice unmoral and aggressive towards animals.

The end of mink farming in the Netherlands is ahead of 2021 due to dozens of coronavirus outbreaks on different farms, which had devastating effects on the business of more than 40 companies , which had to euthanize all of their animals to prevent the increase in infections and that their facilities become a reservoir for the virus.

The Dutch government thus opts not to preemptively sacrifice the visions of all farms, including those that are not yet affected by the coronavirus, because it considers that the health hazard "is not great enough" to make a decision so radical.

However, and as there have been at least two confirmed cases in the Netherlands of transmission of the virus from animal to human , the first known in the world, the country's health authorities fear that, in the long term, these farms will become reservoirs or main sources of the coronavirus.

According to sources in The Hague, the measures will cost the Dutch government about 180 million euros (214 million dollars): 40 million in mink sacrifices and 140 million in its obligations, as compensation, with the companies that it demands closure.

That the decision does not have an immediate effect will also save costs for the Executive, which still has to tighten the measures for the management of sanitary situations within these farms and modify, with the approval of Parliament, the law that prohibits this practice, since it did not enter into force until 2024.

As of the middle of this year, there were still some 130 mink farms in the Netherlands, with more than 800,000 mink animals being raised and cared for after shedding their fur.

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