Finland has cleared the way to clear fur farms where infections with avian flu have been detected. The preparations for the first culling have already started, reports the Finnish food authority FFA in response to questions from NRC.
Infections with the highly pathogenic bird flu variant H5N1 have now been detected at five fur farms. At one company it concerns minks and elsewhere it concerns arctic foxes. Black-headed gulls have previously been observed around the farms that were affected by avian flu.
According to a spokesman for the FFA, there are now a dozen other breeding farms “under suspicion”, which still have to be awaited for the laboratory results.
The Finnish food authority expects the number of companies with infections to rise even further, but does not dare to make an estimate yet. Finland has about 700 fur farms, most of them in the Ostrobothnia region in the west of the country. That was also the center of the first outbreaks.
Adapted to mammals
The Finnish authorities have sent samples of the fur animals infected with avian flu to a European reference laboratory for avian flu in Italy. There, the genetic material of the virus is sequenced, so that it can be accurately determined whether mutations have occurred with which the virus has adapted to mammals. “The result is not expected until the beginning of next week at the earliest,” says the FFA spokesperson.
All people – animal caretakers, veterinarians – who have been in contact with potentially infected animals are registered with the Finnish health authorities. They have been instructed to keep an eye on any symptoms of illness in themselves. Several people have already been tested, but they have so far turned out negative. These tests will be repeated regularly in the coming weeks under the supervision of the health authorities.
Bird flu infections are extremely rare in humans and no human-to-human or mammal-to-human infections have been identified to date. But experts fear that the avian flu virus may eventually adapt and develop into a new infectious disease for humans.
Read also: How Polish cats could get bird flu – and four other questions about this virus
Dangerous variants
Finland is the second largest fur producer in Europe after Poland. Before the corona pandemic, Denmark was the largest producer, but that country, like the Netherlands, has cleared all breeding farms after it was found that the corona virus could produce new, potentially dangerous variants in mink. Fur animals are also susceptible to flu viruses, and now that the highly pathogenic virus continues to circulate in wild birds, this poses an additional risk.
Led by the Netherlands and Austria, a majority of European member states argued most recently for a total ban on fur farming and the fur trade in the European Union. But in major fur-producing countries such as Finland, Lithuania and Greece, support for this sector is still high. The proposal for a ban was initially prompted to limit animal suffering, but now virus safety is also added.