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HealthDenmark

Denmark to exhume last mink corpses

Farah Bahgat
July 11, 2021

Denmark is set to complete the task of removing more than 13,000 tons of buried mink that were culled amid COVID-19 fears.

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Two mink
The last cadavers, which had been interred on a military site, will be exhumed on MondayImage: Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/REUTERS

The process of exhuming the carcasses of millions of euthanized mink in Denmark is coming to an end, Danish news agency Ritzau reported Sunday.

Denmark had moved to cull its mink population over fears they could spread the coronavirus.

Disposing of dead mink in a military area in Denmark
The area will be restored to its previous state before it was converted into a mass grave for mink Image: Morten Stricker/Dagbladet Holstebro Struer/Jysk Fynske Medier/Ritzau Scanpix/REUTERS

But the decision to bury the dead mink did not work out as planned when the gasses released from the decaying animals brought many of their remains back to the surface.

Danish lawmakers later decided the animals were to be exhumed again and burned, as they no longer posed a risk of infection.

What will Denmark do with the dead mink?

The last corpses had been buried on a military site close to Kolvra in the Central Denmark Region. 

Officials plan on exhuming their remains Monday morning to transfer them to an incineration plant.

The process, which started in May, concludes Denmark's excavation of mink remains, which weigh more than 13,000 tons in total.

Denmark had decided in November last year to cull all of its mink population — nearly 15 million. 

An areal view shows buried mink being excavated and transported on a truck.
Around 4 million mink corpses had been buried on two military sitesImage: Mikkel Berg Pedersen/AFP

DPA news agency contributed to this report