Danish cull of mink continues

The mass culling of mink aimed at preventing human contagion from a mutated coronavirus strain continued in Denmark on Friday (November 13) despite a legal challenge faced by the government.

Authorities last week embarked on a plan to eliminate the entire population of 17 million mink, one of the world's biggest, saying the new strain could move to humans and evade future COVID-19 vaccines.

But the decision faced a legal challenge and on Tuesday (November 10) the government put forward hastily drawn up legislation to back up its order to cull all the country's farmed mink.

Although farmers are no longer required by law to cull non-infected mink, one farm in rural Funen in central Denmark, went ahead with the culling of its 64,000 mink.

Eyewitness video showed farmers separating the dead male and female mink and piling them up on trolleys. Each mink goes through a machine that shakes off the dust and other particles and then covers them with sawdust.

The sawdust ensures the mink are clean before sending them to the factory where they are turned into fur.