Six countries report worrying Covid-19 mutation in mink

The twelve cases were identified at the northern tip of Jutland, in western Denmark, and date back to September.

“The cases were aged 7 to 79, eight of them were related to the mink farming industry and four were from the local community.”, said the WHO.

Strangers

The mutation of a virus is trivial and often harmless, according to the scientific community.

But in the case of this strain, called “Cluster 5”, it implies, according to the first studies, a lower efficiency of human antibodies, which threatens the development of a vaccine against Covid-19.

“Initial observations suggest that the clinical presentation, severity and transmission of infected individuals are similar to those of other circulating SARS-CoV-2 viruses.”, notes the WHO.

“However, this variant exhibits a combination of mutations or changes that had not been observed before”, adds the specialized UN agency, stressing that “the implications of the changes identified in this variant are not yet fully understood.”

Preliminary results, notes the WHO, indicate that this particular variant associated with mink, identified both in mink and in the 12 human cases, presents a “Moderately reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies”.

WHO is calling for new scientific and laboratory studies to be set up to verify these results and understand what the consequences could be on the development of treatments and vaccines.

“Although the virus is believed to be ancestrally linked to bats, the origin of the virus and the intermediate host (s) for SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been identified.”, recalls the WHO.

International mission

An international mission, made up of international experts, WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organization for Animal Health, was set up in collaboration with Beijing , to determine the origin of the virus.

On October 30, these experts met for the first time with their Chinese counterparts, but virtually.

“Given the scale and complexity of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need a full set of scientific investigations in China and elsewhere to find the intermediate host (s) and the origins of the virus.”WHO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah told AFP this week.