17 million.

A new mutated strain of the coronavirus was discovered on mink farms in the north of the country.

It's prompted an international response on global health.

Officials are eyeing the animals as a potential risk.

Experts say the mutation could pass to humans and evade future coughing.

19 vaccines and what we understand is the minks have been infected by with contact from humans.

It circulates in the mink and then it could pass back to humans.

Here's what we know.

Denmark has identified five variants of the virus stemming from mink.

One of them no Nas.

Cluster five has shown reduced sensitivity towards antibodies.

That's according to Denmark State Serum Institute, which deals with infectious diseases.

The World Health Organization said mink appeared to be good reservoirs for the disease.

Technical lead for Covered 19 Maria Van Kurkova reminded however, that mutations are common.

Mutations are normal.

Thes types of changes in the virus are something that we have been tracking since the beginning.

Andi, you've heard me say many times that W.

H.

O has a global laboratory network and we have a specific working group that is looking at virus evolution and looking at these changes.

So how far has the mutated virus spread?

Outbreaks have occurred on mink farms in Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, on the United States.

Cluster five has been found on five mink farms on 12 cases have been registered in humans in Denmark, but it's not clear why it emerged in the Scandinavian country.

What's the implication for future vaccines?

Well, it's too early to say.

But Denmark's exercise initial laboratory studies show the new strain had mutations on its so called spike protein.

This could pose a problem to future vaccines that are currently in development, as most of them focus on disabling the spike protein keeping.