Health officials have detected COVID-19 at a second mink farm in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.
In a media Christmas Eve media release, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries said three mink had died at a second farm in the province.
Subsequent testing revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. No workers have tested positive so far.
The farm has been put under quarantine preventing the movement of animal or materials from the property, the ministry said.
The mink were tested after some animals at the farm experienced diarrhea, the ministry said. Twenty-three of the farm’s 1,000 animals have died between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23.
It remains unclear how the mink contracted the virus. The farm is not being identified.
No worrying COVID-19 mutations at B.C. mink farm, say health officials
Health officials said Wednesday that genetic sequencing has found no worrying mutations in samples of COVID-19 taken at the first B.C. farm to have an outbreak of the virus.
At least 17 workers and their contacts and five mink at the farm, which has not been publicly identified, have tested positive for the virus. Another 200 mink died at the site earlier in December.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said samples of the virus were examined by both its own Public Health Laboratory, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease Laboratory in Winnipeg.
