Poland has found its first case of Covid-19 in mink, the agriculture ministry said, raising fears of costly culls in an industry that counts over 350 farms in the country.

With new variants of the coronavirus threatening global efforts to get the pandemic under control, authorities in several countries have begun mass culls of the animals due to fears of a mutated strain of the illness being transmitted to humans.

The ministry said in a statement it had been informed by veterinary inspectors on Saturday of a case in Kartuzy county in northern Poland.

“I hope this is a single case, although we must take all measures to limit possible transmission of the virus,” Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska told local broadcaster Radio Gdansk, adding that all mink at the affected farm would be culled.