According to an official statement, the administration will be taking bids on contract to exhume the mink remains for their further incineration by March 23. The deal is for 13.3 tonnes of animal carcasses.
The contract also includes transporting mink bodies to the incineration facilities and re-cultivation of soil near the mass burial grounds. The works must be finished by middle of July, when the dead mink will no longer pose the risk of coronavirus contamination, the administration stated.
After the culling, dead mink carcasses were buried in shallow graves in the west of the country. After some time, they started to resurface due to nitrogen and phosphorus gases built up by their decay, raising worries of possible contamination of the area.