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An advocacy group is urging Oregon officials to investigate its mink-fur farming operations for COVID-19 risks — amid fears that a mutation discovered in the mammals in Denmark could jeopardize the success of impending vaccines.

The Center for Biological Diversity made the request in a Friday letter to the state’s department of agriculture and health authority following the news that Denmark plans to cull its entire herd of up to 17 million mink to try to wipe out the new strain of the contagion.

In addition to the dozen people in the Nordic country already infected with the mutated strain of the virus, about half of the 783 human COVID-19 cases in northern Denmark are “related” to mink, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has said.

Oregon is home to 11 registered factory farms that produce around 430,000 fur-bearing animals — including mink — in addition to smaller mink-rearing operations, according to the organization.

“We urge Oregon officials to make sure mink farms aren’t sources of COVID-19 outbreaks and dangerous viral mutations,” Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center, said in a statement. “The state has a duty to step in and make sure this highly secretive industry is not putting Oregonians at even greater risk from the coronavirus.”

The organization asked that the agencies inform the public if COVID-19 cases are discovered at mink-breeding facilities.

It also called for the carcasses of infected animals to be disposed of in a way that will not cause pollution to the surface and groundwaters.

The same day the letter was issued, Britain banned visitors from Denmark amid fears of the variant strain.

Britons returning from Denmark will also have to isolate, as will anyone who has traveled from there within the last two weeks.