MOSCOW, Nov 24 —Russia will protectively vaccinate its mink population against Covid-19 after other countries identified cases of the virus in theanimals, the acting head of a big Russian state fur company has told a TV station run by the defence ministry.

Ivan Nesterov, acting head of state fur company Russian Sable, made the comments to the Zvezda TV station yesterday. When reached today, he redirected questions to the agriculture ministry, saying it was better if they provided official comments.

In a recording of his interview to Zvezda, he can be heard saying that authorities are testing the vaccine and plan to vaccinate the mink population once the process is finished.

He said the measure was a precautionary one and that Russia had no scientific confirmation that the virus could be passed from minks to humans and had not detected the virus in Russian minks. — Reuters