So far, 11,000 dead crutches have been found and registered in Vadsø. Hardest hit is the crutch colony on Ekkerøy. This is one of Norway’s largest and most important colonies for the endangered herring gull species. – I am not aware of anything similar in the last hundred years in Norway. This level here, we have not seen before, says ornithologist Geir Helge Systad at NINA – Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. So far, 11,000 dead crutches have been collected in Vadsø. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn / news – Serious for the population Influenza is a severe blow to the local colony, but also has an impact on the population on the Norwegian mainland. Officially, there are 87,000 nesting pairs of terns in Norway. But the figure is from 2015, and the stock has declined sharply since then. Now there are probably no more than 50,000 pairs left, according to Geir Systad. A third of them breed on Ekkerøy. Now half of these may be dead. The number of dead birds is probably higher than the 11,000 registered. – It is most likely that a large proportion of those who have died are not registered, or have disappeared elsewhere, says Systad. – It is serious. This means that a large proportion of the population on Ekkerøya is sick, dead or dying. Researcher Geir Systad takes the bird flu outbreak in the north very seriously. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn / news Reprimands the state for poor preparedness Crews from Vadsø municipality have been clearing dead birds by blast in recent weeks, and there is little indication that the bird flu outbreak will decrease in scope anytime soon. The municipality has therefore asked for help from the authorities to deal with the situation. – In a way, I feel that the State Administrator has listened. But nothing concrete has happened. It is the Norwegian Food Safety Authority which reportedly has the main responsibility in this, says Mayor Wenche Pedersen. – How have they taken that responsibility? – Been out late all the time. Vadsø municipality is also highly critical of the fact that the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the State Administrator did not have better preparedness against an epidemic. – I don’t think we could stop the epidemic. But I think we could have started sooner, says Pedersen. She admits that the municipality has not had good enough plans to deal with an outbreak of this size. – No we have not. And it is quite clear that the state has not had that either. – We are not experts on bird flu. But during these fortnight we have become experts in clearing dead birds, says Mayor Wenche Pedersen. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn Surprised by the scale – We understand very well that it is an overwhelming job when you get so many dead birds entering the municipality’s area, says Ole-Herman Tronerud, specialist director of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. However, he does not recognize himself in the criticism from Mayor Wenche Pedersen. On the contrary, the subject manager says that the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has taken responsibility for what falls under their areas of responsibility. – Sort of like giving advice in connection with how the dead birds should be handled, says Tronerud. Subject director of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Ole-Herman Tronerud, does not recognize the criticism from Vadsø municipality. Photo: Magnus Brenna-Lund / news The head of department also does not recognize that he did not have good enough contingency plans in advance of the outbreak. – We have plans for the things that are in our administrative area, and we are used to handling incidents. We have had bird flu in Norway for two years now. But you could certainly have been out earlier with more active information, says Tronerud. He admits that the scale of the outbreak has taken them by surprise. – It is important to remember that we have not had such a large outbreak among wild birds as we see in Finnmark. It is the thing that may have been surprising to us and certainly also to the municipality and State Administrator. Handling the dead crutches is extensive work. To reduce the further spread of infection, one bird at a time is now put into its own containers. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn / news Half-dead colony may be more exposed Bird flu has spread along the entire Norwegian coast, but the virus has particularly affected Vadsø and Eastern Finnmark. Bird researcher Geir Systad fears further negative consequences in the long term for the crane colony on Ekkerøy, when the population there is probably halved. – This could mean that the colony becomes more vulnerable and more exposed to crows, ravens and sea eagles. We have seen that elsewhere, says Systad. – When the population declines, it eventually just crashes, because it no longer has the protection of being numerous in the colony. On Thursday, Agriculture and Food Minister Sandra Borch (Sp) will visit Vadsø to be briefed on the work to clean up birds that have died from bird flu. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn / news Geir Systad is afraid that other vulnerable bird species or critter colonies will now be infected by the ongoing bird flu outbreak. – If we get a spread to the moose populations in Finnmark, it will be tragic. It will also be if we get the spread of infection to the crutch colonies on Bjørnøya and Svalbard. On Tuesday, it became clear that bird flu has been detected in four dead birds on Svalbard. But in Vadsø’s neighboring municipalities Vardø and Berlevåg, there is hope that the epidemic is about to calm down in sight: Only a few dozen birds are now being picked there. In Vadsø, however, mayor Wenche Pedersen believes that state authorities should learn from the experiences of the municipality. – It has been seen that bird flu can be extremely severe. If you have not had emergency preparedness before, you should in any case be able to prepare with the experiences from what we have seen now, says Pedersen.
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Half of Norway’s most important crane colony may have been killed by bird flu – news Troms and Finnmark
