The first known case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a non-captive wild animal has now been confirmed in Utah, according to an alert issued by the United States Department of Agriculture. A wild mink tested positive during screening of wildlife around fur farms with outbreaks, the alert said. The notification did not identify the location within the state where the mink was tested.
The strain of the virus in the wild mink is “indistinguishable” from that in infected mink on farms around the state, according to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory, the USDA division that conducted the tests.
In the U.S., coronavirus outbreaks have been documented at 16 mink farms in Utah, Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan, with the most cases in Utah. But until now, no wild mink cases had been detected, despite ongoing testing of mink, raccoons, skunks and other animals around farms with infections.
This mink was trapped in the “immediate vicinity of one of the affected farms,” said Utah state veterinarian Dean Taylor and was the only animal caught in the area to test positive.
“There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating or has been established in wild populations surrounding the infected mink farms,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wrote in its alert, using the official name for the virus.
The virus has also been found in a number of captive wild animals, including lions, tigers, and snow leopards, as well as in domestic dogs and cats. Scientists have been racing to determine what other animals may be susceptible, paying particular attention to endangered species and those that may be able to pass it on to humans. Until now, however, no animals in the wild have been found to have it.
In December, Canada reported its first farmed mink outbreak, in Fraser Valley, British Columbia. And since this spring, millions of farmed mink have been killed to control the virus’s spread across Europe, including in Denmark, the continent’s largest mink pelt producer. The Netherlands recently announced that it has completed culling its 4 million mink and shut down its mink industry permanently.