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 Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, told a
briefing in Geneva on Friday 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."
The risk was much lower in animals other than mink, a second WHO
expert said.
"We are working with regional offices ... where there are mink
farms, and looking at biosecurity and to prevent spillover events,"
van Kerkhove said.
Denmark said earlier this week that it plans to cull its entire mink
population and announced strict new lockdown measures in the north
of the country to prevent a mutated coronavirus from spreading in
the animals and to humans.
It has raised concerns that the mutations could affect the potential
efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in development.
Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO's chief scientist, said on Friday,
however, that it is too early to jump to conclusions about the
implications of mutations in the virus found in mink.
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"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," she said. "We don't have any evidence at the moment
that it would."
Denmark's State Serum Institute, which deals with infectious diseases, said a
mutated strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been found in 12 people and on
5 mink farms.
Kerkhove said Denmark's decision to cull its mink was aimed at preventing the
establishment of "a new animal reservoir for this virus".
Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergencies expert, said other farm animals, such as
pigs and poultry, had "very strict" biosecurity in place to prevent viruses
jumping the species barrier.
(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich, editing by Alex Richardson
and Louise Heavens)
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