Outbreaks in farmed mink have reignited long-smoldering fears that H5N1 could trigger a human pandemic.
When mink at a big farm in Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain, started to die in October 2022, veterinarians initially thought the culprit might be SARS-CoV-2, which has struck mink farms in several other countries. But lab tests soon revealed something scarier: a deadly avian influenza virus named H5N1. Authorities immediately placed workers on the farm under quarantine restrictions. The more than 50,000 mink at the facility were killed and their carcasses destroyed.
H5N1 was first detected at a goose farm in China in 1996. A big poultry outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 led to the first documented human deaths and sparked the first pandemic fears. Around 2005, the virus spilled over into migratory birds, which have since spread it across the world in several big waves. A new variant named 2.3.4.4b that emerged in 2020 has spread faster and farther than any predecessor, dealing huge blows to the poultry industry in Europe and North America before.
There have been some past reports of avian influenza outbreaks on mink farms in China, but no clear evidence that the virus spread between the animals. In the Spanish outbreak, there seems to be little doubt it did. In theory, all of the sick animals could have picked up the virus from their feed, which included poultry byproducts, but H5N1 outbreaks have not been reported in the region where the poultry farms and slaughterhouses supplying the feed are located.
The outbreak again puts the spotlight on the risks of mink farming. SARS-CoV-2, introduced at farms by humans, spread like wildfire among the animals but was also passed back to their caretakers, and researchers worried the mink industry might become a permanent source of infections and a breeding ground for genetic variants. The Netherlands, which had already decided to phase out mink farming by 2024 for ethical reasons, closed all remaining farms in 2021.
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