NRS culls 800,000 salmon in new disease blow

Norway Royal Salmon has been forced to cull around 800,000 triploid salmon after stocks were affected by a parasitic infection. The company made the announcement in an Oslo Stock Exchange statement today which said: “NRS's farming have detected the fish disease Parvicapsulose caused by the parasite Parvicapsula, and have therefore, for welfare reasons, chosen to cull all fish at the site Elva in Alta municipality [in Finnmark, northern Norway]. “The site has 0.8 million (800,0000) triploid fish with an average weight of 0.65 kilos. The incident will have an impact on the result of the third quarter of 2022 and will reduce NRS's expected harvest volume for 2022 by around 2,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes.” Parvicapsula infections in farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway are not generally common but can result in mortalities, from low-grade to significant levels. The statement added: “NRS continues to analyse the consequences and we will return with more information when reporting for the second quarter of 2022." The NRS group is licensed for 36,085 tonnes MAB (maximum allowable biomass) for salmon farming located in Troms and Finnmark, and 21,800 tonnes (MAB) for salmon farming and 5,300 MAB for trout farming on Iceland through the company Arctic Fish. In addition, the group has a minority interest in two associated Norwegian fish farming companies which together own nine fish farming licences. A few weeks ago NRS became part of the SalMar salmon farming group following a year-long takeover battle.