COPENHAGEN, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Danish government extended a national deadline for a special culling bonus to mink breeders by three days to speed up the ongoing mink cull.
The deadline was extended until midnight Thursday, it said.
“The mink breeders have made a fantastic effort, and without their cooperation this enormous task would not have been possible,” said Mogens Jensen, the food and fisheries minister.
Earlier this month, the government ordered a cull of the country’s 15 million to 17 million minks after the discovery of mutated forms of the coronavirus in the creatures.
Concerns were mainly linked to one of the five mink-related variants, so-called cluster 5, which was found to weaken the ability to form antibodies and could make future vaccines ineffective.
The government later admitted that, under current law, it lacked the powers to order a cull of healthy minks and could only recommend such a measure.
Despite the government’s climb-down, the cull has continued and the government has proposed legislation banning any mink from being farmed until the end of 2021.
On Monday evening, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had secured a political majority for a legal basis for such a cull.
It also provided the legal framework for the bonus payments, though final compensation is still under negotiation.
The government is in talks with the opposition on the size of the compensation to breeders and culling bonus.
Breeders in seven municipalities in North Jutland – where the mutated virus was detected – were to receive 30 kroner (4.8 dollars) per mink culled before Nov 9.
In the rest of the country, breeders were to receive a bonus of 20 kroner per mink culled until Thursday. — NNN-AGENCIES
