ITALY, 14 FEBRUARY 2025 – A new outbreak of COVID-19 has been confirmed at an Italian mink farm in Capergnanica, between Crema and Lodi, reigniting concerns over animal welfare and public health. Italian Fur Free Alliance member LAV uncovered the outbreak at a facility that should have been shut down long ago and is now demanding urgent action to prevent further animal suffering and biosecurity threats.

According to data from the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (IZLER), obtained by LAV, the virus was detected in swabs collected between September 2024 and January 2025. Hundreds of animals have been culled following the outbreak.

Concerningly, health authorities identified the outbreak as early as October 2024 but failed to make it public. Instead, they proceeded with the mass killing of approximately 900 minks between late October and early November. What remains at the farm today are hazardous piles of excrement—accessible to wild birds and posing an ongoing risk to public health.

This is not an isolated incident. Since 2020, COVID-19 outbreaks have affected more than 450 mink fur farms in Europe and North America, including five mink fur farm outbreaks in Italy. Despite biosecurity measures in place since 2020 and the ban on fur farming enacted in January 2022—secured through LAV’s relentless campaigning—these outbreaks persist. Previous cases include:

• 2020-2021: Capralba (Cremona) and Villa del Conte (Padua)
• 2022: Galeata (Forlì-Cesena)
• 2023: Calvagese della Riviera (Brescia)

Simone Pavesi, head of LAV Fashion Area Animal Free, said:

“All these animals could have had a new life, free from cages and any form of exploitation, if only the Ministers of Agriculture, first Stefano Patuanelli and then Francesco Lollobrigida, had allowed the transfer of minks from farms to recovery centers managed by associations – said  Instead, we are witnessing a slow and prolonged agony that these animals have to suffer every day, without considering the risk to public health”.

LAV’s Fashion Spillover report, published in 2022, exposed the severe health risks associated with mink fur farming. It highlighted how national institutions and health authorities have consistently failed to manage these farms safely—allowing them to become breeding grounds for dangerous mutations that can jump back to humans.

LAV calls for immediate government action to free the last 400 mink still trapped in Italy’s intensive fur farms, to prevent further suffering and eliminate this ongoing threat to public health.