Months after federal officials confirmed multiple cases of coronavirus at Utah mink farms, a wild mink in Utah has tested positive for the virus.

On Dec. 11, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the National Veterinary Service Laboratory had “confirmed SARS-CoV-2 by real time RT-PCR and sequencing of a nasal swab collected from a free-ranging, wild mink sample in Utah.”

“To our knowledge, this is the 1st free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” wrote Thomas DeLiberto and Susan Shriner of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

In August, the USDA reported that five mink at two undisclosed Utah mink farms had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the first confirmed cases in the animal species.

DeLiberto and Shriner wrote they then notified the World Organisation for Animal Health of the detection “as part of the epidemiological study in the surrounding area of the infected farm” and noted that the “sequence of the viral genome obtained from the wild mink sample … was indistinguishable from those obtained from the farmed mink.”

They also wrote there “is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating or has been established in wild populations surrounding the infected mink farms.”

“Several animals from different wildlife species were sampled, but all others tested negative,” they wrote.

According to DeLiberto and Shriner, mink that escape from fur farms “are known to have become self-sustaining in some countries” but noted that “so far, no COVID-19 cases have been reported from such animals.”

“To prevent the potential establishment of a virus reservoir, efforts to prevent SARS-CoV-2 introduction into and spread within the large North American wild mink population, as well as elsewhere, are warranted,” officials wrote.

In response to the wild mink in Utah testing positive, the Humane Society of the United States called on officials to end “cruel confinement practices like fur farming because animals held in cramped, crowded spaces are far more likely to contract and spread dangerous diseases that can jump to humans.”

“This is the first report of a wild mink testing positive for the virus anywhere in the world, and it signals the disturbing likelihood that intensive confinement farms where minks suffer and die for their pelts are now the source of potential harm to mink in the world,” CEO Kitty Block wrote in a blog post Monday.

In October, the Utah Animals Rights Coalition launched a petition to “pressure Utah Governor Gary Herbert to use the emergency powers granted to his office due to the ongoing COVID pandemic to order an end to all breeding operations on Utah fur farms and the phasing out of this vile industry.”

As of Dec. 11, the USDA has detected SARS-CoV-2 in six animals: mink, lions, dogs, cats, tigers and a snow leopard.

In Utah, the virus strain has been detected in mink, household dogs and cats. Officials have also detected SARS-CoV-2 in mink in Oregon, Wisconsin and Michigan.