An increased risk of COVID-19 transmission by safe burial practices “extremely unlikely”View(s):
With different views being expressed on the debate of cremation versus burial of those who die of COVID-19,
the Sunday Times sought the expert opinion of Prof. Malik Peiris, Professor of Virology at the School of Public Health, Hong Kong University (HKU), to get the scientific facts straight.
Prof. Malik Peiris
This is what Prof. Peiris, who is a clinical and public health virologist with a particular interest in influenza and coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Reference Laboratory for providing confirmatory testing for COVID-19 at HKU states:
First case of coronavirus detected in wild mink
BBC
15th December, 2020 11:07:35
The first known case of coronavirus in wild mink has been reported, leading to calls for widespread monitoring of wildlife.
In an alert to the International Society for Infectious Diseases, US veterinary officials said a wild mink had tested positive around an infected mink farm in Utah.
Farmed mink are known to be susceptible to the virus, with cases reported at fur farms in Europe and the US.
Millions of mink have been culled.
This is the first known detection of the coronavirus (Sars-Co-V2), in a free-ranging wild mink , raising concerns that the infection could spread between wild mink, said Dr Dan Horton, a veterinary expert at the University of Surrey, UK.
Posted on December 15, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Foxes are now part of the Berlin cityscape – but one fox has been attracting particular attention for months: the miner fox.
With thousands of followers on Instagram and various regional press reports,
the miner fox is probably the best-known four-legged friend of its kind in the capital.
Now the red fox is also an ambassador for a campaign against the hunt for foxes.
He is Berlin’s first fox with an Instagram account.
The miner fox as an
ambassador for PETA shows that hunting is not necessary.
The trusting fox from Bergmannkiez in Berlin-Kreuzberg has his own Instagram profile.
The case “reinforces the need to undertake surveillance in wildlife and remain vigilant”, he added.
Mink are known to escape from mink farms and become established in the wild. In the UK, a population of mink that escaped from fur farms many years ago is thought to exist, but they are sparsely distributed and rarely come into contact with people, Dr Horton added.
The virus has also been found in zoo tigers, lions and snow leopards in the US, and in a small number of household cats and dogs.
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed the first known case of the coronavirus in a wild animal, a mink. In an alert to the International Society for Infectious Diseases, US officials said a wild mink had tested positive around an infected mink farm in Utah during the screening of wildlife around fur farms with outbreaks.
Farmed mink are known to be susceptible to the virus, with cases reported at fur farms in the US and Europe. But this is the first known detection of the coronavirus in a “free-ranging wild mink.” It is unclear how the wild mink may have come into contact with infected mink on a farm.