Romanian mink farms employees have taken Covid-19 tests after a mutated version of the coronavirus was found in the animals in Denmark, Spain and Italy sparking concerns that it may be present in Romania.
Dorin Enache, chief of the veterinary and food safety department for the Brasov county told universul.net on Thursday that authorities asked farm managers to make sure employees were tested after an outbreak of the virus resulted in a mass cull of 17 million farmed mink in Denmark.
He said the test results would be known on Monday.
Animal and food safety officials have already carried out checks at two Dutch-owned farms in Transylvania as a precautionary measure. There are no violations of health and safety rules and no indications of a Covd-19 outbreak, he said.
The two farms are in the village of Sercaia which has 90,000 minks and 49 employees. Another farm in the town of Feldioara has 49,000 minks and 14 employees.
“We carry out checks whenever it’s necessary,” Dr. Enache said. “We took it on ourselves and checked out both farms.”
The World Health Organization said Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States of America have reported SARS-CoV-2 in farmed minks to the World Organization for Animal Health.
Dr. Enache reported that “biosecurity” was respected at both facilities and animal mortality rates were at normal levels. Staff have their temperature checked when they enter the facility and the farms are disinfected, he said.
The farm was established in 2014 by Van Ansem Participaties which has farms in Poland and the U.S, bzb.ro reported.
In 2018, the company sold more than six million euros of furs.
There are some 4,350 mink farms, with Poland, Finland, Lithuania and Greece.
Furs are sold to the garment industry but also used in some false eyelash products. China and Hong Kong in particular provide the biggest market.
