Israel is feared to be the latest country to be hit by the mutated strain of coronavirus spread by mink in Denmark.
The Israeli Health Ministry is testing three citizens who recently returned from the Scandinavian country where the new infection is spreading from animals to humans.
If positive, Israel could join the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden in reported mink Covid cases.
Israel is feared to be the seventh country to have reported coronavirus cases linked to mink farms after a Covid mutation spreading from the animals to humans was found in Denmark
Denmark has already ordered a cull of its 17 million mink after fears the new strain could be resistant to future vaccines
The Danish Government has ordered a cull of 17million mink to try to eradicate the mutant strain, which is thought to have originated on fur farms. Officials fear it could scupper a Covid-19 vaccine before one is even found to work.
Scientists believe the virus jumped from farm workers to mink in the summer before being passed back to humans.
As it crossed between species, a mutation occurred on its ‘spike’ protein, which it uses to enter human cells.
Denmark has imposed strict measures on the north of the country after warning that the the mutation had infected 12 people.
Officials from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the Danish Emergency Management Agency wearing PPE arrive to start killing minks in Gjol
Coronavirus has spread from minks to humans in hundreds of cases – but the mutant strain is restricted to just 12 infections. Scientists fear this small number could the beginning of ‘a new pandemic starting again, this time from Denmark’.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said it could pose a ‘risk to the effectiveness’ of a much-anticipated future Covid-19 vaccine as the antibodies provided by the jab may not be effective enough.
In response, Britain banned all arrivals from Denmark over the weekend as the world scrambled to contain the new strain.
Denmark first learned a strain of coronavirus had crossed over from mink in June after an outbreak at a care home.
A ‘mutated version of coronavirus’ linked to Danish mink farms could undermine efforts to produce an effective vaccine
Cluster 5 has been found in 11 people in North Jutland (top) and one person in Zealand (island). Denmark has ordered seven areas in Jutland into lockdown
Five different strains of mutant mink coronavirus have been discovered in 214 people in Denmark since then.
But only one of these strains – known as Cluster 5 – is less sensitive to antibodies, Denmark’s State Serum Institute revealed.
Cluster 5 has been found in 11 people living in North Jutland – which has been placed under lockdown – and one person living in neighbouring Zealand.
While scientists at the institute have known for months – and insisted that the minks be killed or there would be a ‘major risk to public health’ – the laboratory results confirming their fears only came in this week.
The new Covid strain discovered in Denmark is less sensitive to an attack from Covid-19 antibodies, scientists have found. Pictured: Some of the culled mink in Denmark
Of the five farms where Cluster 5 was identified, only three of them were linked to four people with the infection, suggesting the strain is spreading between humans in the community.
Tests on Cluster 1 revealed its mutations did not hamper the immune response to an infection.
Laboratory analysis of the other three clusters are ongoing, and could take several weeks to report their results.
Denmark’s top epidemiologist told the Financial Times: ‘The worst-case scenario is a new pandemic starting again, this time from Denmark.’
Aarhus University professor and veterinary ecotoxicology expert Christian Sonne said the family of carnivorous mammals mutelids – which includes minks and ferrets – were ‘ticking bombs’. They eem to be more at risk of coronavirus than other creatures.
Denmark has locked down seven towns in North Jutland where a strain of coronavirus that evolved in mink was identified in humans. It has also ordered a nationwide culling of up to seven million minks. Pictured are minks in Naestvad, Denmark
Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said that transmission of the virus between animals and humans was ‘a concern’, but added: ‘Mutations (in viruses) are normal.
‘These type of changes in the virus are something we have been tracking since the beginning.’
Soumya Swaminathan – the WHO’s chief scientist – said on Friday that it is too early to jump to conclusions.
She said: ‘We need to wait and see what the implications are but I don’t think we should come to any conclusions about whether this particular mutation is going to impact vaccine efficacy.
‘We don’t have any evidence at the moment that it would.’