Minks are primarily raised for their fur, which has been one of the most commercially valuable animal pelts for over a century. But fur is far from the only use. Minks and their byproducts show up in medical research, leather care products, hunting lures, and even biofuel production.
Fur Production
The fur industry is the dominant reason minks are farmed worldwide. Mink fur is prized for its density, softness, and natural water resistance, making it one of the most sought-after materials in luxury fashion. China is the world’s largest producer of mink pelts, followed by Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Mink pelts are used for coats, hats, scarves, and trim on other garments. The fur’s fine underhair traps air efficiently, giving it strong insulating properties relative to its weight. This combination of warmth, light weight, and durability is what historically set mink apart from cheaper alternatives.
The industry has been shrinking significantly in recent years, though. More than a dozen countries have now banned fur farming outright, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, France, Ireland, and Malta. Poland, the world’s second-largest mink fur producer, passed a ban in December 2025 with an eight-year phase-out period for existing farms. Norway’s ban took effect in 2025, Estonia’s follows in 2026, and Latvia’s in 2028. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated these closures after the virus spread rapidly through mink farms, raising both public health and animal welfare concerns.
COVID-19 and Medical Research
Minks became unexpectedly important to scientists studying respiratory viruses, particularly SARS-CoV-2. The reason is biological: the receptor that the virus uses to enter human cells (called ACE2) works almost identically in minks. Lab tests have shown that the virus enters mink and human cells with comparable efficiency, which makes mink one of the few animals that develop a disease closely resembling severe COVID-19 in people.
This matters because most common lab animals don’t get sick enough to be useful models for severe disease. Mice, hamsters, ferrets, and even nonhuman primates typically develop only mild to moderate illness when infected with SARS-CoV-2, and some show unusual patterns of viral spread that don’t mirror what happens in human lungs. Minks, by contrast, develop the same kind of lung damage seen in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including a pattern of tissue injury called diffuse alveolar disease and blood clotting complications. Researchers published findings in JCI Insight confirming that infected minks display worsening respiratory symptoms, breathing difficulty, and lung imaging changes that closely parallel the progression of severe human COVID-19.
Before COVID-19, minks were already used in influenza research for similar reasons. Their respiratory tract responds to flu viruses in ways that are more clinically relevant than what researchers observe in smaller rodent models.
Mink-to-Human Disease Transmission
The pandemic also revealed a serious downside of housing millions of minks in close quarters. On farms in the southeastern Netherlands, whole-genome sequencing confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 jumped from humans to minks, mutated, and then spread back to people. By June 2020, 68% of mink farm workers on affected farms tested positive for the virus or had antibodies against it. Genetic analysis showed that human virus samples were nearly identical to mink samples from the same farm, confirming the direction of transmission. The Netherlands subsequently ordered all its mink farms closed.
This episode was one of the first documented cases of a farmed animal serving as a reservoir for a human pandemic virus and transmitting a mutated version back to people. It played a major role in accelerating fur farming bans across Europe.
Mink Oil for Leather Care
Mink oil comes from the layer of fat beneath the animal’s skin, collected as a byproduct of fur processing. It has long been used as a leather conditioner and waterproofing agent, especially for heavy-duty items like work boots, hiking gear, and outdoor equipment. The oil penetrates deeply into leather fibers, restoring moisture and creating a barrier against water.
If you’ve seen mink oil products at a shoe store or hardware shop, this is what they contain. It’s particularly effective on thick, rugged leather that faces regular exposure to rain, mud, or snow. One drawback: it tends to darken lighter-colored leather and can leave a greasy feel if you use too much.
Scent Glands and Hunting Lures
Minks have musk-producing scent glands that are harvested and sold to the trapping and hunting lure industry. These glands produce strong, distinctive odors that trappers use to attract target animals. Mink glands, along with those from muskrats, otters, and bobcats, sell for roughly $100 to $125 per gallon. The market is niche but steady, serving hunters and trappers who rely on natural animal scents rather than synthetic alternatives.
Carcass Byproducts
After pelts are removed, mink carcasses don’t go to waste in most large-scale operations. In the Netherlands, a rendering company collects carcasses and processes them into two end products: animal fat and bone meal. The fat is used as biofuel, both on-site at rendering facilities and in power plants and cement kilns. The bone meal serves as a component in fertilizers. This system effectively turns the non-fur portions of the animal into energy and agricultural inputs, though the scale of these byproduct industries is tied directly to the fur trade and has declined alongside it.
Minks as Pest Control
Outside of farming, wild and semi-domesticated minks have historically been valued for rodent control. Minks are aggressive, agile predators that hunt rats, mice, voles, and rabbits. In some rural areas, particularly in parts of Europe, minks were released or tolerated near farms for their ability to keep rodent populations in check. This practice has largely fallen out of favor because escaped and released minks became invasive in many regions, devastating native wildlife populations, particularly ground-nesting birds and water voles.