Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
Occup Environ Med. 2021 Dec;78(12):893-899. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2021-107443. Epub 2021 Jul 30.
Unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 infections in farmed minks raised immediate concerns regarding transmission to humans and initiated intensive environmental investigations to assess occupational and environmental exposure.
Air sampling was performed at infected Dutch mink farms, at farm premises and at nearby residential sites. A range of other environmental samples were collected from minks' housing units, including bedding materials. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was analysed in all samples by quantitative PCR.
Inside the farms, considerable levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were found in airborne dust, especially in personal inhalable dust samples (approximately 1000-10 000 copies/m). Most of the settling dust samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA (82%, 75 of 92). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in outdoor air samples, except for those collected near the entrance of the most recently infected farm. Many samples of minks' housing units and surfaces contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Infected mink farms can be highly contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 RNA. This warns of occupational exposure, which was substantiated by considerable SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in personal air samples. Dispersion of SARS-CoV-2 to outdoor air was found to be limited and SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in air samples collected beyond farm premises, implying a negligible risk of environmental exposure to nearby communities. Our occupational and environmental risk assessment is in line with whole genome sequencing analyses showing mink-to-human transmission among farm workers, but no indications of direct zoonotic transmission events to nearby communities.
养殖水貂中前所未有的 SARS-CoV-2 感染引起了人们对其向人类传播的担忧，并启动了密集的环境调查，以评估职业和环境暴露风险。
在受感染的荷兰水貂养殖场、农场场所和附近的居民区进行空气采样。从水貂的居住单元中收集了一系列其他环境样本，包括床上用品材料。所有样本均通过定量 PCR 分析 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。
在农场内部，空气中的 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 水平相当高，尤其是在个人可吸入的灰尘样本中（约 1000-10000 拷贝/米）。大多数沉降灰尘样本均检测到 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 阳性（82%，92 个中的 75 个）。除了最近感染的农场入口附近采集的样本外，室外空气中未检测到 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。许多水貂居住单元和表面的样本都含有 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。
受感染的水貂养殖场可能高度污染 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。这警告存在职业暴露风险，这在个人空气样本中 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 浓度相当高的情况下得到了证实。SARS-CoV-2 向室外空气的扩散有限，并且在农场场所以外采集的空气样本中未检测到 SARS-CoV-2 RNA，这表明附近社区环境暴露的风险可以忽略不计。我们的职业和环境风险评估与全基因组测序分析一致，该分析表明农场工人之间存在水貂向人类的传播，但没有迹象表明直接发生了向附近社区的动物传人事件。
