Scientists detect COVID-19 in mink in Poland

FILE – In this file photo dated Friday Nov. 6, 2020, mink look out from a pen at a farm near Naestved, Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has appointed Thursday Nov. 19, 2020, a new agriculture minister, after Mogens Jensen resigned after the government ordered the culling of all Danish mink because of the coronavirus, but without having the necessary legislation in place first.(Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix FILE via AP)

WARSAW, Poland — Scientists in Poland said Tuesday that they have detected the first cases of the novel coronavirus in mink in Poland.

They said that they examined 91 farmed mink for the presence of coronaviruses and confirmed infections with the coronavirus in the cases of eight animals.

“This is the first case of confirmed infection of farm animals with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Poland,” the scientists said.

The study was carried out by scientists from the Medical University University of Gdansk and the University of Gdansk in cooperation with veterinarians.

The cases of coronavirus were collected from a breeding farm in the Pomeranian region in northern Poland.

The statement from the Polish scientists comes two days after the French government said it had ordered the culling of all minks in a farm after analysis showed a mutated version of the coronavirus was circulating among the animals.

In Denmark, a mutation of the virus has been found in several people infected by minks, according to the government which ordered the cull of all 15 million minks.