Public health experts say a nightmare scenario is playing out in Utah, and state and federal officials are mostly looking the other way. In a lengthy investigation, ProPublica’s Nat Lash and Julie Leopo report that a virulent strain of bird flu ravaged thousands of mink at C&T Fenn Farms for more than two months — on an animal whose lungs look a lot like ours and which has already been shown to transmit respiratory viruses to humans. Unlike poultry, where a single positive test triggers a government-ordered mass cull, there are no federal rules for mink. The Utah state veterinarian refused to order a cull at the farm and did not even visit the site, instead relying on phone calls and Google Maps.
According to ProPublica, which calls the situation a “perfect petri dish” for a possible pandemic, Utah officials also agreed not to actively monitor or routinely test workers, despite CDC guidelines and even after a worker showed a classic bird flu symptom. Experts cited in the article warn that the farm provides an ideal setting for the virus to adapt to humans, especially as the flu season picks up. To see how economic, secrecy and regulatory gaps collided at a single fur farm, read the full investigation on ProPublica.
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