Coronavirus found on Polish mink farm can be transmitted to humans

A SARS-CoV-2 strain found on a Polish mink farm can be directly transmitted from the animals to humans and vice versa, the Agriculture Ministry has said.

The mink virus variant, the first detected in farm animals in Poland is, up to now, not identical to any of the new strains found recently in humans, but belongs to an animal strain well-known to epidemiologists, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

It also differs from the strain detected in Danish minks, the ministry added.

Denmark has culled its entire farm mink population.

"Past experience from Denmark and the Netherlands clearly indicates that the virus can pass to humans and vice versa," the ministry also said.

The infection on the Polish mink farm in the northern county of Kartuzy was detected in late January. All 5,800 minks have been culled.

The coronavirus has already been detected in minks in a number of European countries, including Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.