The Mink VIRUS Act (H.R. 3783)

Mink on fur farms incubate diseases such as COVID-19 and avian influenza, creating the perfect conditions for new variants to jump to humans—with potentially devastating results. Mink farms risk worsening the current pandemic and ushering in the next one. 

In addition, taxpayer dollars are being used to prop up mink farms, subsidizing an industry that was already in decline before the COVID-19 pandemic. To eliminate a severe public health threat and end this financial waste, there is a solution that would benefit all:

MINK FARMS: A PUBLIC HEALTH RISK

Mink pose a high risk to humans because their upper respiratory tract is physiologically similar to ours, which means they can become infected by—and potentially transmit to people—some of the same respiratory viruses. Furthermore, mink’s susceptibility to acquiring and spreading both human and animal respiratory viruses render them potentially potent “mixing vessels” for generating novel pandemic viruses. (1)

In 2023, infectious disease experts at Imperial College London, in a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that mink farming poses a high risk for future viral pandemics. (3) Fur farms house mink in crowded environments that create an ideal setting for pathogens to circulate among and across species. (4) Wire cages are packed together and often stacked on top of one another so that waste falls on the animals below. The confined conditions cause caged mink to become highly stressed and thus immuno-compromised, making them even more susceptible to infection. The absence of legal requirements for veterinary care only compounds the problem.

Avian Flu in Mink

A deadly avian influenza virus (H5N1) has infected tens of thousands of mink on multiple fur farms since 2022. During an October 2022 outbreak on a mink farm in Spain, the virus gained at least one mutation that favors mammal-to-mammal spread, allowing it to spread from mink to mink. (5) Before this outbreak, the virus spread primarily through contact with infected birds, not between mammals. Scientists sounded the alarm on this H5N1 mink farm outbreak, calling it a “clear mechanism for an H5 pandemic to start” and “a warning bell.” (6)

H5N1 infections were also detected at multiple mink farms in Finland in 2023, (7) demonstrating the risk for this dangerous virus to continue causing outbreaks on mink farms, each time with the possibility of mutating into something transmissible between humans.

COVID-19 in Mink

Mink are highly susceptible to COVID-19, which has infected tens of thousands of mink in the United States (8) and millions more abroad. Alarmingly, mink are capable of passing a mutated form of the virus back to humans. (9) Mink-to-human transmission of the virus has been reported in at least six countries so far, including the United States. Four people in Michigan were infected with a unique strain of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) traced back to mink. (10) Spillback from mink farms to humans could introduce new variants, undermining the effectiveness of vaccines and jeopardizing efforts to contain the pandemic. (11)

New outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 continue to emerge on fur farms. Mink on more than 480 known mink fur farms across 12 countries have become infected with COVID-19, including outbreaks in Italy in November 2022 and Poland in January 2023.

Like humans, mink can become infected with COVID-19 without showing symptoms, thus potentially serving as an undetected reservoir of the disease. Escapees from these farms can also transmit the virus to wild populations, potentially fostering reservoirs of the virus off the farms. In December 2020, a wild mink captured near a mink farm in Utah tested positive for a variant of COVID-19 indistinguishable from the virus found in infected mink in a nearby farm—demonstrating the broader dangers posed. (12)

MINK FARMS: FINANCIALLY UNSUSTAINABLE

Waste of Taxpayer Dollars 

Mink farming is a dying industry, with sales nosediving since well before the pandemic. (13) However, taxpayer money is helping keep this industry afloat. Utah mink farms received approximately $1.5 million in loans from the US government in 2020-21. (14) The majority have since been forgiven. The state of Utah also gave mink farmers about $1.8 million “to compensate producers for loss in the market due to COVID-19” and to pay for mink who died during the pandemic. (15) US taxpayers are unwittingly propping up a hazardous industry that US consumers were already rejecting.

An Industry in Decline

According to the USDA, in 2017 there were 236 mink operations in the US that produced about 3.3 million pelts, generating about $120 million. (16) Now, there are fewer than 100 US mink farms. (17) The industry has declined significantly as a result of shrinking consumer demand for real fur and a commitment by major fashion brands and retailers such as Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Gucci, Versace, and Giorgio Armani to go fur-free.

According to a July 2023 USDA report, 2022 was the fur industry’s worst year on record, with the value of all mink pelts produced falling to $39.2 million, a 17% reduction from 2020 (previously the worst year). Mink pelt production in 2022 also fell 6% from 2020. (18)

Cities, states and even countries are now banning fur sales, further closing markets for fur products. In 2019, California became the first state to ban fur sales after similar measures passed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood. In 2020, Wellesley, Massachusetts, became the first East Coast city to ban fur sales.

Furthermore, there was a nearly 50% decline in the value of fur apparel imported into the United States in 2020 compared to 2019, which was also a low year. (19,20) Global fur auctions, which in 2020 were held virtually in Denmark, Finland and other fur-producing countries only managed to sell a small percentage of the pelts on offer. (21) The North American Fur Auction, one of the last remaining fur auctions on the continent, lost its lender and declared bankruptcy in October 2019. (22)

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

Globally, the spread of COVID-19 among farmed mink has been even more destructive than in the United States. The virus has been found in captive mink in Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. (23) European governments have ordered the culling of tens of millions of mink amid evidence of the transmission of a mutated form of COVID-19 from mink to farm workers. (24) Meanwhile, Finland also ordered the culling of tens of thousands of mink amid the 2023 avian flu outbreak.

Many European countries have already banned, or are in the process of banning, fur farming, including Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. The Italian government also allocated money for reimbursing mink farmers. (25) The COVID-19 crisis prompted Denmark, Sweden and Italy to suspend mink fur production, the Netherlands to move up its deadline for ending all mink fur production from 2024 to the end of 2021, and France to announce its intent to ban mink fur production.

In addition, British Columbia, Canada, announced it would phase out mink farming after mink and farm workers tested positive for COVID-19 at multiple BC mink farms. The province is providing financial support and other transition assistance for mink farmers. (26) In 2021, Israel became the first country to ban the sale of most fur products. Swift measures taken by governments to address the serious public health risk posed by mink farms are appropriate and proportional to the scale of the crisis.

For more information, contact Kate Dylewsky, Assistant Director of Government Affairs, Animal Welfare Institute (kate@awionline.org).