Page 16 - Australian Pork Newspaper

ns Preparing for a not so festive season
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DURING the past month, I have begun collecting data for my master thesis on hus-
Compensation was of- fered to these producers at this point.
mutated strain.
This lockdown has im-
Nordic
News
by ASHLEY NORVAL
6 bandry practices in the farrowing house that reduce the incidence of navel outpouchings.
On November 10, the government submitted legislation to enable the mink cull and urged all producers to begin the process, if they had not already done so.
Albeit part time, it has been great to be on farm again, particularly with the forecasted chal- lenging next few months here in Denmark.
Many producers re- ported phone calls from police, military and state veterinarians, pushing them to begin the culling process – despite having nowhere to put the de- stroyed mink – with follow up calls each day.
This was not the first time the coronavirus had passed between human and mink – in April this year, the first case of human-mink-human transmission was re- corded in the Nether- lands, with further re- ports of COVID-19 in- fected mink in the US, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
pacted on two pig pro- cessing sites.
If the winter weather and accompanying dark- ness weren’t bad enough, we are again in a nation- wide semi-lockdown – no Christmas parties, small numbers only can gather,
and no ‘safe’ country to travel to outside of Den- mark.
at odds with the govern- ment’s handling of the mink industry.
On November 4, the Danish Prime Minister ordered the immediate destruction of all mink in Denmark – essentially shutting down an entire industry.
Further to this, the ag- riculture community is quite frankly a mess, and
For a while now we have known of a COVID-19 mutation in mink.
Mass holes were dug to bury the animals, as the national animal disposal company DAKA were at capacity.
Denmark is the world’s largest producer of mink pelts, with 17 million mink making up the $A1.5 billion per year in- dustry.
It was articulated that the action taken was due to the risk to public safety, as 12 people had been infected with the mutated form of the virus in North Jutland – sus- pected, though uncon- firmed, from mink.
Destruction crews were brought into Denmark, with many farms having no choice but to leave the bodies in piles on their property until disposal could be arranged.
Photo: Reuters
This escalated to mink farms within an exclusion zone of approximately 7km being ordered to de- stroy all of their animals, regardless of whether the animal tested positive or not.
When the first few farms in Denmark tested positive, they were or- dered to destroy all of the animals because of the risk to human health.
Shortly after this an- nouncement, North Jut- land – where the majority of mink farms are – was put into total lockdown with extreme restrictions, the reasoning being to stop the movement of people who may have been infected with the
The concern was that the mutation – known as Cluster-5 – would put any vaccine work in danger, as preliminary experi- ments suggested that antibodies from people who had recovered from COVID-19 found it more difficult to recognise the mutation, rendering the vaccine less responsive.
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Since then however, several experts in the field have publicly stated that the mutated strain was actually not a risk and there was not enough evidence to either sup- port or justify the culling of all mink in Denmark – many of which are on a separate island to the main mink farms.
Scientists are still not able to identify the trans- mission pathway for the virus between farms, with only one positive wildlife sample from a seagull’s foot.
It seems likely that farm staff are the source of the transmission, but is cur- rently unsubstantiated.
On November 16, leg- islation was passed al- lowing for the forced destruction of mink and subsequent closure of the industry – previous or- ders by the government were in effect illegal.
The compensation to be provided to producers and what they will be compensated for are still to be presented.
A substantial ripple effect will be felt from these actions.
For the pig industry alone, a new market will need to be found for the offal used as mink feed – an approximate $A11 million per year in rev- enue – with the fishing industry being in a sim- ilar position.
As the chair of the Danish Crown Board has stated, this has greater implications for Danish agriculture and food pro- duction.
The political handling of this situation has cast a negative shadow on the country’s high reputation of superb food safety, in addition to the right to farm.
Page 16 – Australian Pork Newspaper, December 2020
On a lighter note, my wishes to everyone for a merry Christmas and a safe happy New Year.
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