SARS-CoV-2 (Y453F) mutants that occur in the body in the farmed mink pose a threat to people?

Mutations in SARS-C V-2 can jeopardize the efficacy of potential vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19.

Mustelidae animals such as mink and ferrets can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 relatively easily compared to other mammals. It is not clear why SARS-CoV-2 is so contagious to these animals (1). It is clear that when SARS-CoV-2 is infected with farmed minks that is kept in large quantities in a high density environment, SARS-CoV-2 proliferates in large quantities in the mink body. As a result, humans may pose a high risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 as well as farmed minks.

Originally, the bird and swine flu viruses are species-specific viruses. However, there may be swine flu virus subspecies that infect other animals across species. When a pig infected with swine flu virus is infected with a virus that is relatively easy to infect humans, in the living body of pigs, the swine flu virus gene and the virus gene that easily infects humans are recombined, and as a result, the swine flu virus subspecies that easily infect humans proliferate. Similarly, by genetic recombination or mutation occurs in the body of the farmed mink, highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 subspecies generation is concerned.

Natural selection “adaptation” in the coronavirus can occur during coronavirus amplification in vivo in farmed mink (2). Natural selection in such viruses is observed by the appearance of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 that are not observed during the growth process in humans (2,3). Infection with a mutant (Y453) of SARS-CoV-2 from farmed mink is widespread among people (4).

To date, data on all SARS-CoV-2 mutants have not been published. Therefore, it is not clear whether the SARS-CoV-2 mutants detected in people working on mink farms are actually derived from farmed mink.

However, subspecies of SARS-CoV-2 derived from farmed mink has been observed example of infected peoples, the virus mutants are inherited by infected individuals.

Since the mutations have occurred in the SARS-CoV-2, subspecies of SARS-CoV-2, which are susceptible to human and animal infection, easily propagate in the host. Effect of the therapeutic agent or vaccine for the COVID-19 cannot be recognized.

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants mediated by millions of farmed minks is uncontrolled. As a result, there is concern that SARS-CoV-2 mutants, which cause serious symptoms in humans, may be spread all over the world.

References
1. Enserink M. Coronavirus rips through Dutch mink farms, triggering culls Science 368(6496): 1169 (2020)
2. Oude Munnink BB. Sikkema SR. Nieuwenhuijse DF. Jan Molenaar R. et al. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms between humans and mink and back to humans. Science 10 Nov 2020: eabe5901 DOI: 10.1126/science.abe5901
3. Hayashi T. Konishi I. Subspecies of SARS-CoV-2 from farmed minks might be a threat to humans. Science Published on 11 November 2020. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1169/tab-e-letters
4. Mallapaty S. COVID mink analysis shows mutations are not dangerous-yet. Nature 587(7834): 340-341 (2020).                                                                                                                                                                                        Science Published on 29 November 2020. by Kyoto@Takuma H