A person who works on a mink farm to market their fur has contracted the coronavirus from these animals, the Dutch Minister of Agriculture said in a letter to Parliament.
The case would be the first known of a direct contagion from an animal species to a human.
Outbreaks on mink farms were first detected in April, when keepers noticed that some animals were showing respiratory difficulties , prompting an investigation.
In her letter, Minister Carola Schouten acknowledged that her department's previous notifications that people could infect animals, but not vice versa, were wrong. However, he added that the Netherlands Institute of Public Health still considers the possibility of infections outside the stables to be minimal .
The letter did not specify how the affected person is.
The mink fur is sold in China, Korea, Greece and Turkey . Following pressure from animal rights activists, the Government of the Netherlands banned new mink farms in 2013 and gave until 2024 to close existing ones.
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