Denmark, one of the largest fur producers in the world, has found a coronavirus mutation spreading through its mink population, prompting the nation to kill every mink in the country to contain the new viral strain that had already begun spreading to humans.

The Danish government announced earlier this week that it had planned for a more limited cull of its mink population, but instead decided to terminate the nation's estimated 15 to 17 million minks. This decision was not taken lightly, for it will have a devastating impact on the nation's fur exports.

Although SARS-CoV-2 mutated constantly with the majority of changes being incremental to the function of the virus, this variation in Denmark has prompted global concern due to its apparent ability to harm virus-neutralizing antibody production in humans. There are currently 12 known cases in which humans have contracted the new strain.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters during a virtual press conference on Wednesday that because of the new strain in Denmark, there is now "a risk that the effect of a future vaccine will be weakened or, in a worst case scenario, be undermined," quoted by Bloomberg News.

Frederiksen added that this new strain "can have serious negative consequences for the global handling of the pandemic." In a worst-case-scenario situation, the new viral strain could begin a new pandemic originating from Denmark.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that it would review biosecurity measures worldwide following Denmark's discovery.

Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, head of the global health agency's emerging disease and zoonosis unit, stated during a press briefing on Friday that "there is always a concern when you have a circulations and transmission from humans to animals then animals to humans."

"We've been seeing this for a number of months now and what we understand is the minks have been infected with contact from humans and it circulates in the mink and then it can pass back to humans," van Kerhove stated at the W.H.O.'s headquarters in Geneva.

"Each one of these changes, each one of these mutations, whether they are identified in mink of they are identified in humans, need to be evaluated because we need to determine the importance of each of these. Ad it any of these changes means that the virus behaves differently," she continued. "In this situation, there is a suggestion that some of these mutations may have some implications, be we need to do the proper studies to evaluate this and that is ongoing right now."

The novel coronavirus is considered to be a zoonotic type of disease, meaning that the virus can transfer with little effort between humans and other mammals. The virus is still estimated to have originated from an animal-to-human contact transfer in China, possibly by a bat.

Concern about continued human and animal viral mutations have been present since the earliest research in to the coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in other animals such as cats and dogs, but the spread between these animals back to humans seems rare. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that risk of the virus spreading from animals to humans is low.