The World Health Organization (WHO) has said more research needs to be done on the variant of COVID-19 that has been found in Denmark's mink population.

After scientists found a mutation of the virus that could spread back to the human population, up to 17 million of the animals are set to be culled in the country, which is the world's largest mink breeder.

In Friday's press conference, WHO officials said there was no immediate danger to humans from this particular strain of the coronavirus, which has been identified in mink farms in Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands.

The risk of transfer to humans from mink remains low, but the decision to cull the mink population in Denmark was taken swiftly.

"There's always a concern when you have a circulation and transmission from human to animals and then animals to humans," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO epidemiologist. "So there are a number of activities that are ongoing to understand the situation in Denmark.

"There need to be studies to evaluate if there are any changes in transmissibility or severity and if there are any implications for diagnostics, for vaccines and for therapeutics."

The epidemiologist further explained that virus mutations were extremely common. There is a WHO working group that is looking at virus evolution and studying these changes.

"There's a suggestion that some of these mutations [in mink] may have some implications. But we need to do the proper studies to evaluate this," added Kerkhove.

"So the immediate steps that are taken in Denmark are to limit further spillover of the virus and then making sure that these mink are culled."

It was also confirmed that the same mutations have not been found in other animals such as pigs, chickens and cattle. This, they believe, is because the conditions under which they are farmed are very different from those used for mink.

However, the WHO officials said livestock were constantly being monitored to ensure there was no danger of a modified virus being transmitted back to humans.

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