Four Americans Were Infected With a Virus Variant Seen in Mink

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Monday that at least four people in Michigan were exposed to the coronaviruses in the first year of the Pandemic.

The first known instance of animal-to-human transmission of the virus in the United States has been included in the cluster.

Two employees of a Michigan mink farm were exposed to coronaviruses. The other two had no known links to the farm, suggesting that the variant may have been circulating more widely among area residents at the time.

The samples of the virus that were collected from all four people contained two different types of genes, according to an email from the One Health Office.

In Europe, as well as in people with connections to those farms, there have been documented the mutations.

The most likely hypothesis is that the workers were exposed to the disease after contact with the animals on the farm.

She noted that that cannot be proved.

She said that it was impossible to know if the mutations came from the farm or if they were already circulating in the community.

The fourth human case was reported by National Geographic after obtaining government documents about the outbreak.

The first three cases were reported by The Detroit Free Press and the Documenting Covid-19 project, which included two farm workers and a taxidermist who had no known connection to the farm.

The taxidermist's wife was the fourth case reported on Monday.

Several of the animals on the local farm died of the virus in October of 2020. The C.D.C. deployed a team to investigate the outbreak.

The investigators collected samples from people in the community and animals on the farm. The C.D.C. updated its website in March of 2021.

The agency said that all of the human patients had recovered.

The first human cases on the affected farm were identified in November, months before the agency updated its website.

The C.D.C. became aware of the data indicating the possibility of human-mink transmission in late 2020.

The information was published on the C.D.C. website as soon as it became clear that there was a chance of human spread.

In the Netherlands and elsewhere, there have been reports of mammal-to-human transmission.

The transmission of the virus from animals to humans is very rare. Humans are more likely to spread the virus to other species than they are to catch it from animals, according to experts.