SARS-CoV-2 Discovered In Wild Mink In Utah
Dec 15, 2020, 6:45 AM | Updated: 6:47 am
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Scientists have found the first case of SARS-CoV-2 in a wild animal.
The United States Department of Agriculture says a wild mink in Utah is the first recorded wild animal to catch the virus in the country.
According to the USDA, the wild mink was captured near a mink farm that also has confirmed infections. The department’s report states the case could be the first in the world of a wild animal catching SARS-CoV-2, which manifests itself as COVID-19 in humans.
In the United States, 15,000 mink have died due to the virus. In Denmark, authorities killed more than 17 million mink after concerns arose that the mink were spreading a mutated version of the virus to humans.
However, there have been no confirmed cases in the U.S. where a mink has spread the virus to a human.