Finnish health authorities plan to inspect all fur farms for bird flu infections

The inspection of over 400 fur farms will begin next month.

The Finnish Food Safety Authority has announced plans to inspect all 400-plus fur farms located across Finland over concerns about the spread of bird flu.

“Avian flu is a dangerous disease in fur farms because it can mutate into a disease that can infect humans. This has not yet happened, but the risk is there. We want to ensure that there is no virus left lying around that could mutate,” Terhi Laaksonen, Director of the authority’s Animal Health and Welfare unit, told Yle.

Currently, fur farms are inspected on a case-by-case basis, and usually only if there is a reason to suspect a bird flu infection.

A farm may also be inspected if it is linked to a farm where bird flu infections have been confirmed, or if it is located in an area which has seen a high number of infections.

The nationwide inspections of all fur farms will begin next month and will likely continue into late autumn due to the scale of the task.

“It was deemed so important that it received additional funding,” Laaksonen noted.

The decision to extend inspections to every farm is not due to a dramatic increase in infections, but quite the opposite, as the spread of cases has calmed down since hitting a peak in July.

The virus has been detected in a total of 24 fur farms, with 12 of these having received a culling order, 9 under surveillance and 3 currently undergoing a culling assessment.

The inspections are likely to be carried out by provincial and municipal veterinarians, but no specific plan has been announced as yet.

“The work must be scheduled so that the Food Safety Authority’s laboratories are not overwhelmed and samples come in at a steady pace,” Laaksonen said.

The process will be further hampered by the fact that, due to the risk of infection, the same inspector cannot visit more than one farm per day.

Authorities hope that the virus will be fully eradicated from fur farms by early October, as the human flu season will begin around that time and the fears of a viral spread will increase.

Laaksonen said it is unlikely all fur farms will have been inspected by then.