October 24, 2005

 

Norway orders poultry inside as bird flu risk increases
 

 

Norway's government is requiring poultry in 11 southern counties to be moved indoors as the risk of bird flu infection increases, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority said Friday.

 

Following the outbreak of the potentially lethal bird flu H5N1 south of Moscow, and based on migratory routes that pass over southern Norway, "the risk of infection is increasing," Keren Bar-Yacov, the authority's chief veterinarian officer, told Dow Jones Newswires.

 

Yacov said most of Norway's commercial poultry population was already housed indoors, and the new requirement would mainly affect small, private farms and organic poultry farms.

 

"We're making sure we don't get the virus circulating in any of our poultry stocks," she said.

 

She said the order would take effect either immediately or over the weekend. It is similar to the requirements being implemented by the European Commission.

 

Yacov said the migratory routes of several types of ducks and geese, "get very close to the southern end of Norway".

 

Annual testing has commonly found regular strains of bird flu in Norway, but not the virulent and dangerous strain that has world health officials worried of an epidemic.

 

Norway produces most of its own poultry products, with high taxes on imports, but it does import most of its breeding parents. Those parents, however, are initially quarantined and tested.

 

Gudbrand Bakken, director general of food safety at Norway's Ministry of Food and Agriculture, told Dow Jones Newswires that if there was an outbreak, both poultry meat and egg businesses would be hurt, including Norway's largest poultry company, Prior.

 

But John Nordal, head of food safety for Prior in Norway, said most of his company's poultry is already kept indoors, protected from infection from wild birds, and the few hens that are outside "we are prepared to bring inside".

 

"We have a good management structure to take care of the animals," he said.

 

Norway's geography should help to prevent the spread of infection, should the lethal strain of bird flu be found, with farms along the long stretch of Norway in particular separated by deep fjords and high mountains.