Tokyo (CNN)Eriko Kobayashi has tried to kill herself four times.The first time, she was just 22 years old with a full-time job in publishing that didn’t pay enough to cover her rent and grocery bills inTokyo. “I was really poor,” said Kobayashi, who spent three days unconscious in hospital after the incident.Now 43, Kobayashi has written books on her mental health struggles and has a steady job at an NGO. But the coronavirus is bringing back the stress she used to feel.”My salary was cut, and I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “I constantly feel a sense of crisis that I might fall back into poverty.”Experts have warned that the pandemic could lead to a mental health crisis. Mass unemployment, social…
(CNN)An Oregon mink farm has reported an outbreak of coronavirus among mink and farmworkers.Ten mink samples submitted all came back positive for coronavirus, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) said in a news release on Friday. The farm has been placed under quarantine, meaning “no animal or animal product can leave the farm until further notice,” according to ODA.
10,000 mink are dead in Covid-19 outbreaks at US fur farms after virus believed spread by humansThe farmer and his staff have been advised to self-isolate after multiple coronavirus cases were reported among workers on the farm, the release said.”We have been engaged with the Oregon mink industry for some time, providing information on biosecurity to prevent the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 and were ready to respond,” ODA veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said.Content by Voltaren Arthritis Pain GelChasing the Joy of MovementThis is how world champion cyclist Kristin Armstrong manages her osteoarthritis in a life of constant movement.Content by Voltaren Arthritis Pain GelChasing the Joy of MovementThis is how world champion cyclist Kristin Armstrong manages her osteoarthritis in a life of constant movement.”The farmer did the right thing by self-reporting symptoms very early and he is now cooperating with us and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) in taking care of his animals and staff. So far, we have no reports of mink mortalities linked to the virus but that could change as the virus progresses.”A public health veterinarian team is working with those affected by the outbreak by ensuring staff have personal protective equipment and the supplies needed to follow coronavirus guidance, according to OHA.close dialog
Want tips for navigating the changing workplace?We’ve got you.SIGN ME UPBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.“Worker safety is critical to protect people and animals on mink farms,” said OHA public health veterinarian Dr. Emilio DeBess. “Our best weapon against the virus right now is education. We are providing testing, specific workplace guidance and support, and supplying additional PPE to the farmer, the employees and their families to help reduce further spread of the virus.”
Coronavirus could drive the last nail into the mink fur tradeThis year, the virus was detected in mink in seven countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and Spain, and three US states, Utah, Michigan, and Wisconsin, according to ODA.Thousands of mink have died at fur farms in Utah and Wisconsin after a series of coronavirus outbreaks. In Utah, ranchers have lost at least 8,000 mink to Covid-19.There is currently no evidence that animals, including mink, play a significant role in transmitting the virus to humans, according to the CDC and the US Department of Agriculture. The risk of animals spreading Covid-19 to humans is considered low.The USDA announces confirmed coronavirus cases in animals each time it is found in a new species. All confirmed cases in animals are posted on the department’s website.
Although the ground beneath our feet feels solid and reassuring (most of the time), nothing in this Universe lasts forever.
One day, our Sun will die, ejecting a large proportion of its mass before its core shrinks down into awhite dwarf, gradually leaking heat until it’s nothing more than a cold, dark, dead lump of rock,a thousand trillion years later.
But the rest of the Solar System will be long gone by then. According to new simulations, it will take just 100 billion years for any remaining planets to skedaddle off across the galaxy, leaving the dying Sun far behind.
Astronomers and physicists have been trying to puzzle out the ultimate fate of the Solar System for at least hundreds of years.
LAS CRUCES – On Nov. 20, a man on his morning walk discovered multiple piles of dead and skinned coyotesoff a main road near Santa Teresa.
Kevin Bixby, executive director of theSouthwest Environmental Center in Las Cruces, went to the site to check out the scene on Sunday.
“It was pretty gruesome,” Bixby said. “They were probably trappedin the area out in the desert.”
More than 30coyotes had been dumped in four piles in the desert, their bodies all skinned andat varying levels of decomposition. Several had typicalleg-hold trap wounds on their paws, indicating that this was the work of trappers who had dumped the bodies after removing the coyote’s fur.
“I can trap coyotes all year round,” Bixby said.”Butthis time of year when it gets a little colder, the pelts are worth more money.”
PreviousHIDE CAPTIONBrayden Ratcliffe, left, and the Burch family stand beside a tailgate full of pheasants following a hunt at Eckman Hunting Preserve in Baldwin City. [Submitted]HIDE CAPTIONFrom left, Lillian Burch, 17, holds up a black pheasant that was shot by her father, Travis Burch, during a hunting trip with their dog, Denali, this month in Baldwin City. [Submitted]HIDE CAPTIONFrom left, Lillian Burch, Kevin Burch, Danny Burch, hunting dog Denali and Travis Burch take a knee in front of a pile of pheasants shot during their hunting trip at Eckman Hunting Preserve in Baldwin City. [Submitted]HIDE CAPTIONLillian Burch, 17, a senior at Gardner-Edgerton, holds up a pair of roosters from her first hunting trip in Baldwin City as her chocolate lab, Denali, sits proudly by the rest of the birds. [Submitted]HIDE CAPTIONChocolate lab Denali, 8, lays in front of some pheasants shot during a recent hunt in Baldwin City. [Submitted]HIDE…
Sharon RoznikFond du Lac Reporter0:120:43https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.426.0_en.html#goog_1606354332
SPRINGVALE – Officials are investigating how a bullet hit a house, traveled through the sidinginto the wall, and came out of the drywall into aresidence in western Fond du Lac County.
The homeowner, who lives along Pommering Road in the town of Springvale,called 911 about 8:20 a.m. indicating a bullet had struck the house, said Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Dobyns.
The caller saida group was hunting on borderingstateland when a gunshot was heard, and then a noise of something hitting the house.
The caller inspected closer and found drywall debris inthe residence and evidence the bullet had passed through theinterior wall.
One of the hunters stated that he had discharged his firearm at a deer in the direction of the residence on the bordering property.He said he had missed the deer, but did not think, due to the distance and…
OnFocus – On Friday morning at approximately 9:30am, there was a hunting incident at McMillan Marsh State Wildlife Area, near Abe Lincoln Avenue. A man was shot while participating in a large deer drive at the marsh. Another man participating in the drive was shooting at a running deer when his bullet struck the victim in the face and shoulder. The victim was transported to the hospital and expected to make a full recovery.
“One of the drivers was shooting at a deer and that bullet ended up striking one of the other hunters,” said DNR Recreation Warden Jake Holsclaw. “It sounds like everybody is going to recover.”
He added that statewide there have been hunting incidents, but this is the first one this season in the area.
Scientists fear fur farm animals in wild could create ‘lasting’ Covid reservoir that could then spread back to humans
Dead mink are disposed of on army land near Holstebro, Denmark. About 10 million mink have been culled in the country this month. Photograph: Morten Stricker/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/GettyAnimals farmed is supported by
Escaped mink carrying the virus that causes Covid-19 could potentially infect Denmark’s wild animals, raising fears of a permanent Sars-CoV-2 reservoir from which new virus variants could be reintroduced to humans.
Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, announced in early November that it would cull the country’s farmed mink after discovering a mutated version of the virus that could have jeopardised the efficacy of future vaccines.
Around 10 million mink have been killed to date. Fur industry sources expect the fur from the remaining 5 million to 7 million mink will be sold.
A number of Covid mink variants were identified by Denmark’s state-owned research body the Statens Serum Institut, but only one, known as C5, raised vaccine efficacy concerns. However, Denmark’s health ministry said last week that the C5 mink variant was “very likely extinct”.Advertisement
Mink are known to regularly escape fur farms and the risk that infected mink are now in the wild was confirmed on Thursday.
“Every year, a few thousand mink escape. We know that because they are an invasive species and every year hunters and trappers kill a few thousand wild mink. The population of escaped mink is quite stable,” said Sten Mortensen, veterinary research manager at the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.
This year, Mortensen said, there was a risk that about 5% of the minks that escaped from farms were infected with Covid-19.
The risk of the escapees infecting other animals was low, he said, because mink were “very solitary creatures”. But, if they did, the animals most likely to catch the virus would include wild animals such as ferrets and raccoon dogs and “susceptible domestic animals” such as cats.
Mink do not normally die from Covid-19, he added. “Once a mink has had Covid it usually recovers well. Some might have a few days of respiratory difficulty, but most recover and develop immunity.”
The risk of Sars-CoV-2 moving into wild populations has drawn concern from other scientists. Prof Joanne Santini, a microbiologist at University College London, said that, once in the wild, “it will become extremely difficult to control its further spread to animals and then back to humans”.
Transmission to the wild meant “the virus could broaden its host-range [and] infect other species of animals that it wouldn’t ordinarily be able to infect”, Santini said.
Prof Marion Koopmans, head of viroscience at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, in an email to the Guardian, said: “Sars-CoV-2 could potentially continue to circulate in large-scale farms or be introduced to escaped and wild mustelids [weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks, and wolverines] or other wildlife” and then “in theory, as avian flu and swine influenza viruses do, continue to evolve in their animal hosts, constituting a permanent pandemic threat to humans and animals.”
However, a mink vaccine is a contentious issue for animal welfare organisations. “Instead of dealing with the fact that the appalling conditions of high-volume, low-welfare fur farming make mink so vulnerable to disease in the first place, it’s easier to distract everyone with talk of a vaccine that could be used like a yearly sticking plaster to compensate for the consequences of those poor welfare conditions,” said Wendy Higgins of Humane Society International.
“There’s no way back,” he said in an emailed comment. “Even if a few farmers somehow survive, there’s still no future. We can only survive if we have a large, robust business.”
Denmark is fighting a new mutation of the coronavirus found in its mink farms. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says the variant has the potential to derail efforts to develop a Covid vaccine. The only option left, she says, is to cull the country’s entire mink population of roughly 17 million animals.
The Danish Fur Breeders’ Association estimated on Wednesday that about two-thirds of that population — both infected and healthy animals — have been culled. That’s after farmers acted on a government order which has since been retracted because it broke the law. Local media reported that all infected mink — roughly 8 million — would be dead by late Wednesday.
The fate of the animals, some of which were killed in such haste that there were eye-witness reports of thousands of mink carcasses strewn across a public motorway, provides a graphic reminder of the real-world consequences of a string of political missteps in Denmark that could have global consequences.
Condemnation
Frederiksen’s handling of the crisis has drawn condemnation from a united parliament. Her government, which initially offered financial incentives to farmers to start culling as soon as possible, has since said it didn’t know the order to kill all Denmark’s mink required new legislation. An emergency bill needing a three-quarters majority has failed, and the legislative process is now in limbo.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s main animal rights group, Dyrenes Beskyttelse, said it plans to involve the police after viewing a video showing a botched cull by state workers.
The law states “that anyone who wants to put down an animal has to ensure that it’s done as painlessly as possible,” Yvonne Johansen, the head of Dyrenes Beskyttelse, said in a statement. “That’s not what I’m seeing here.”
Food and Fisheries Minister Mogens Jensen, who has overseen the planned eradication of Denmark’s mink, was grilled by lawmakers on Wednesday. He faced attacks from both the opposition and members of the ruling bloc, with some even calling for his resignation.
Frederiksen’s government, which still expects a standard bill to pass with a simple majority of more than 50%, wants all Danish mink farming to be banned until 2022. That means breeding animals will be wiped out, effectively shuttering the industry.
As Denmark gets dragged into a domestic political battle, scientists worry that the risk that mink mutations pose is misunderstood.
The arrival of Covid-19 in Denmark was a clear “game changer” for its mink farmers, Kare Molbak, the country’s top epidemiologist, told newspaper Politiken. Maintaining the industry now “represents far too high a national health risk,” he said.
“Mink are very easily infected by the coronavirus, and once it’s there, it spreads at the speed of light,” he said. “We’ve seen how that then spreads to humans. That makes it practically impossible to handle the spread during a pandemic.”
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World’s Biggest Mink Producer Has ‘No Future’ After Coronavirus
© Photographer: MORTEN STRICKER/AFP Disposal of dead mink in a military area near Holstebro, Denmark on Nov. 9.
