The SARS-CoV-2 situation in the Dutch mink industry continues to evolve. Dutch authorities are now reporting outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 on 8 mink farms (with one more suspected), as part of their broader investigation of the industry. After identifying outbreaks on multiple mink farms, the infection was declared a reportable disease national surveillance was initiated, including
More COVID-19 Odds and Ends
A few quick updates on some recent SARS-CoV-2-related stories.
North Carolina dog: Positive result not confirmed
This case, a pug in North Carolina that had an oral swab that supposedly tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 as part of a Duke University household surveillance study, was reported a few weeks ago. It was strange that there
Dutch Mink Farm COVID-19 Update
As described by ProMedMail, the Dutch Agriculture Minister has provided another update on the outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 that have affected at least 5 mink farms in the Netherlands to date (click here for the original Dutch version of the letter).
Another suspected mink-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been identified (with potentially infections
Suspected Mink-to-Human Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
In the midst of outbreaks of COVID-19 on at least 5 mink farms in the Netherlands, a Reuters article reports that Dutch Agricultural Minister Carola Schouten issued a letter to parliament indicating that a farm worker was infected with SARS-CoV-2 from the mink. That’s a bit surprising to me, with the surprising aspect being
Tularemia in muskrats: Long Point, Ontario
A recent report from the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) describes an outbreak of tularemia in muskrats in Long Point, Ontario. Tularemia is a potentially nasty disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. While not many people have contact with muskrats or live in Long Point, it’s still noteworthy.
The investigation was initiated following
COVID-19 and endangered animals
While COVID-19 is almost exclusively a human disease, it’s clear there can be spillover into animals. That’s probably of greatest concern in pets, because of the amount of contact we have with them and the susceptibility of some pet species (especially cats and ferrets). However, while we have less contact with other types of animals,
COVID-19 in mink: The Netherlands
We’ll put this in the “interesting but not really surprising” file.
When you have people with COVID-19 and they have contact with animals, there’s some risk of infecting the animals. The risk varies by animal species, but this virus seems to have the ability to infect a few different species beyond our own.
The hunt for the SARS-CoV-2 intermediate host (and for better scientific publishing)
The hunt for the intermediate host for SARS-CoV-2 continues. It’s pretty universally accepted (the odd conspiracy theorist aside) that this virus, like SARS and MERS, originated in bats. How it made it to people is an important question we’d like to answer to help understand this virus and future risks.
Figuring that out is challenging
New COVID-19 research updates
Let’s just call this an “odds and ends” post. I’ll outline some interesting highlights from some recent papers, including a couple just posted overnight.
More on predicted susceptible hosts (pre-print (i.e. not peer reviewed) on BioRxiv)
This study looked at genomic data from 410 vertebrates, including 252 mammals, and the researchers ranked the different animal
COVID-19 veterinary clinic contact guidelines: Updated (and now in Russian)
Here is an updated version of the decision tree for screening of owners / patients coming to veterinary clinics, which I originally posted a few weeks ago, to help with identifying higher risk situations. We also have a Russian translation courtesy of Dr. Varvara Solovyeva.
You can use the links below to download the