Finland, Europe’s largest producer of fox fur, has started killing 120,000 foxes and mink to stem an outbreak of bird flu that has ravaged fur farms, authorities said on Wednesday.
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“A slaughter order has been issued for 13 farms,” Tuija Gadd, head of the Finnish Food Safety Authority’s virology department, told AFP. “Ten farms have already been slaughtered,” she said.
In June, several outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza were detected in seagulls in Finland. The first cases in fur farms were discovered in July.
In early August, the Finnish authorities decided to slaughter a large part of the animals on farms affected by the epidemic.
Since the end of 2021, Europe has been experiencing the worst outbreak of bird flu, with North America and South America also recording serious increases.
The World Health Organization said in mid-July it was concerned that increasing cases of avian influenza in mammals would make it easier for the virus to spread to humans.
Finland has around 400 fur farms with around 1.3 million animals, mostly mink and foxes, Ms Gadd said.
The epidemic appears to be “calming down,” she believes, as gulls and seagulls have begun their southward migration.
Rising cases of bird flu have reignited calls for a ban on the fur industry in the Nordic country, as Finland produces nearly a million pelts each year.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Denmark found itself in a political crisis after illegally ordering a mass killing of 15 million mink to prevent the virus from mutating.