TY - JOUR T1 - Occupational and environmental exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in and around infected mink farms JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 893 LP - 899 DO - 10.1136/oemed-2021-107443 VL - 78 IS - 12 AU - Myrna M T de Rooij AU - Renate W Hakze-Van der Honing AU - Marcel M Hulst AU - Frank Harders AU - Marc Engelsma AU - Wouter van de Hoef AU - Kees Meliefste AU - Sigrid Nieuwenweg AU - Bas B Oude Munnink AU - Isabella van Schothorst AU - Reina S Sikkema AU - Arco N van der Spek AU - Marcel Spierenburg AU - Jack Spithoven AU - Ruth Bouwstra AU - Robert-Jan Molenaar AU - Marion Koopmans AU - Arjan Stegeman AU - Wim H M van der Poel AU - Lidwien A M Smit Y1 - 2021/12/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/78/12/893.abstract N2 - Objective 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.Methods 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.Results 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/m3). 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.Conclusions 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.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. ER -