Nova Scotia will help pay for a COVID-19 vaccine for mink, as BC government says more research is needed to determine if vaccination is an option for thousands of people. animals that will soon be banned in the province.
The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture said the vaccination program, which will soon run on five farms through the end of December, is based on advice from veterinarians and medical experts in a trial offering 54,000 doses to mink farms in this province.
The province will share costs with the federal government under previously announced funding for the agriculture sector, the ministry said in an emailed statement.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it has authorized the import of an investigational vaccine for mink from the United States following discussions with the Public Health Agency of Canada, provinces and industry .
“The vaccination began in August 2021 and is limited to emergency use under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian,” she said in a statement.
Soon more mink in BC.
News of the mink vaccination program comes after the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture announced that live mink would no longer be allowed on farms by April 2023 and its industry would be phased out two more years late.
He said public health concerns were behind the plan to close nine farms in the Fraser Valley, which currently have around 318,000 mink.
Matt Moses, former president of the Canadian Mink Breeders Association, said the group had worked with the government of Nova Scotia to launch the vaccination program. British Columbia, he argued, should also have taken advantage of the vaccine for its animals instead of shutting down the entire area.
“We tried to talk to the government about offering the vaccine to protect the whole herd in British Columbia and they refused to offer financial assistance for it,” said Moses, a mink farmer. who represents the Nova Scotia Mink Breeders Association and serves on the executive committee of the national group.
“Now they are using the pretext of a pandemic as a reason to shut down an industry after looking for a reason for a long time,” he said of British Columbia, which he believes has “caved in” to prepandemic pressure from animal welfare groups.
The British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture said it was not aware of any requests for funding.
“The ministry does not pay for vaccines for commercial farms. Vaccines under the direction of their veterinarian are the responsibility of each farmer, ”he added in an emailed statement.
“We have followed the advice of public health and infectious disease experts that more research is needed to determine if a vaccine might be an option. “