Nova Scotia will help pay for a COVID-19 vaccine for mink, but the British Columbia government says more research is needed to determine if immunization is an option for thousands of animals that will soon be banned from the province.
Nova Scotia's Agriculture Department said the vaccination program, to be launched soon at five farms until the end of December, is based on advice from veterinarian and medical experts as part of a trial offering 54,000 doses to mink farms in that province.
News of the mink vaccination program comes after the Agriculture Ministry in British Columbia announced live mink would not be permitted on farms by April 2023 and its industry would be phased out two years later. "We tried to talk with the government about offering the vaccine to protect the entire herd in British Columbia and they refused to offer any funding assistance for that," said Moses, a mink farmer who represents the Nova Scotia Mink Breeders Association and sits on the executive board of the national group.
British Columbia's provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham cited outbreaks on three mink farms since late last year when they announced the closure last week.Scott Weese, an infectious disease veterinarian of the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, said B.C. made a necessary and proactive decision to avoid further spread of COVID-19 between the animals and humans.
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