A WILD mink in Utah, the U.S., is the first free-ranging native animal anywhere to test positive for COVID-19.

It was found and tested near an infected fur farm, and that has some national groups raising alarms.

It provides “yet another pressing reason why the United States needs to end all mink fur farming without further delay,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in a blog Monday.

That comes after reports in October that thousands of minks at fur farms in Utah had died from the disease, forcing nine sites in three counties to quarantine.

At the time, Dean Taylor, the state veterinarian, said infections likely were spread from workers at the mink farms to the animals, with no sign so far that the animals are spreading it to humans. Several workers at the Utah mink farms tested positive for COVID-19, including some who had no symptoms.

Also, at the time, the Fur Commission USA, a mink farming trade group, said fur from the dead infected animals in Utah would be processed to remove any traces of the virus and then used for coats and other garments. The U.S. produces more than 3 million mink pelts each year.

Minks were discovered to be susceptible to the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, in April, after outbreaks at several farms in the Netherlands, followed by outbreaks in Denmark and Spain. More than 1 million animals were culled in those countries, according to The Associated Press.

(SD-Agencies)