Denmark will cull - which basically means it will selectively slaughter about 1 million mink after discovering coronavirus infections among the animals at farms that breed them for their fur, authorities said.

Denmark is the world's largest producer of mink and had previously culled animals on farms hit by infections, but outbreaks have still remained.

Fresh cases have been registered at 41 mink farms and another 20 were believed affected, totalling up to 1 million minks, said at a press briefing on Thursday evening.

"My main focus is on ensuring that the mink farms do not become an infection risk for people, and therefore the government has decided to cull the mink," Environment and Food Minister Mogens Jensen said at a press conference.

Spain previously ordered the culling of all 93,000 mink at a farm in May, to prevent human contagion after finding that most of the mink were infected by the coronavirus.

The Netherlands reported a similar outbreak and undertook a cull after two people were reported to have been infected by mink, though such cases of animal-to-human transmission are believed to be extremely rare.

Source: Reuters