The dead mink will be removed in six months.

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Mads Claus Rasmussen / AP / SIPA

In order to avoid local pollution, Denmark will unearth next year four million mink slaughtered and buried in an emergency in order to fight a problematic mutation of the coronavirus, the government announced on Sunday in a file that turned to the path of cross.

At the end of a majority agreement in Parliament, the millions of corpses will be removed from the earth in six months, when their possible contagious risk will have completely disappeared, to then be incinerated as ordinary waste, said the Ministry of Agriculture in a statement.

"This prevents mink from being treated as hazardous biological waste, a solution that has never been used," said the ministry.

Two mass graves were hastily dug in November on military land near Holstebro and Karup in the west of the country.

But the Danish executive, already widely criticized elsewhere for its management of the "mink crisis", had to recognize that these pits posed an environmental risk for groundwater and neighboring lakes.

A political crisis

According to the ministry, however, the risk of pollution is not considered urgent and "the environmental authority is monitoring the situation closely", thus making it possible to wait until May to dig up.

The world's leading exporter of mink skins, Denmark announced in early November that it would slaughter its huge herd of more than 15 million animals, due to a mutation of the coronavirus which, according to preliminary studies, could threaten the effectiveness of the future vaccine for humans .

The decision had turned into a political crisis, in particular because of the lack of legal basis for the government announcement.

The Minister of Agriculture had resigned and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had apologized with a tear in her eyes.

A bill, which bans the breeding of mink until 2022, must finally be approved on Monday.

As for the problematic “Cluster 5” mutation, Denmark declared it extinct on November 19.

The mink is the only animal identified to date as being able to both contract Covid-19 and recontaminate humans.

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