# Danish mink cull lacks clear legal basis

Date: 2020

The 2020 Danish mink cull was the government-mandated culling of all roughly 17 million mink that were being raised on farms for their fur in Denmark. The cull started in September in response to the detection of Cluster 5, an outbreak of a novel variant of SARS-CoV-2, in the mink during the [COVID-19 pandemic](/drivers/covid-19-pandemic) in Denmark. The cluster led to concerns that the potential of spillover to humans could reduce the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

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## Methodology

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