Dr. Dorothee Bienzle

Dr. Dorothee Bienzle, a pathobiology professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, spoke to Global News Morning B.C. to discuss why mink are highly susceptible to COVID-19.

The interview came after another B.C. mink farm had to be quarantined after one of the animals there tested positive for the virus.

Bienzle explained that mink are as vulnerable as humans to COVID-19 and may have become ill from an infected human on the farm.

A Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Veterinary Pathology from 2005 to 2015, Bienzle has established research programs on feline immunodeficiency virus and equine asthma. More recently, Bienzle has studied COVID-19-causing coronavirus infections in companion animals.