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A week has passed since scrapie was first detected in wild reindeer in Hardangervidda. This is what many have long feared.
The question is whether it is an individual case or whether the fatal disease has spread on a large scale among the large population.
The Norwegian Environment Agency is now taking steps to get a better overview. They are the ones who set the rules of the game for hunting wild reindeer in Norway.
– It is desirable that hunters catch as many wild reindeer as possible in Hardangervidda during the last hunting period. Lower stocks mean the chance of scrapie spreading is reduced, says Director Ellen Hambro of the Norwegian Environment Agency.
When the deadly disease was detected in wild reindeer in Nordfjella, it was decided to kill the entire population.
Change the rules
The Norwegian Environment Agency presents new recommendations for the last part of the hunt in Hardangervidda, following a dialogue with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and input from the local wild reindeer management.
The two most important rule changes allow hunters to simply shoot however they want on the Hardangervidda:
- Hunters can reach verbal agreements on joint hunting in other elections.
- Hunters can shoot any animal on their control card.
INFECTED: This was the slaughterhouse for wild scrapie reindeer before the Norwegian food safety authorities cleaned it up. All hunters must now take into account the place of slaughter and slaughter of animals.
Photo: Norwegian Food Safety Authority
Hunters thus obtain greater freedom of choice. It will provide more test results and important information for the government.
Today, there are more than 130 of the so-called valds in Hardangervidda, which are administrative boundaries that hunters must be aware of. If you are going to kill a wild reindeer in multiple elections, as a general rule you should have a written agreement about it, but now it can be done orally.
– The aim is to simplify and provide efficient logging, explains Senior Advisor Erik Lund from the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Get to shoot the goats they want
This year, 5,000 logging permits have been issued in Hardangervidda. They are distributed with control cards, where half of these are in any animal, while the other half in adult males.
Those who have control cards in adult dollars, with this change they are allowed to shoot whatever they want.
However, it is the results of adult male tests that are most desirable to the government. These are very valuable to be able to tell how scrapie spreads.
– We opened this possibility after a dialogue with the wild reindeer committee and the wild reindeer committee, so that the category of animals on the control card does not limit the number of wild reindeer that are killed, says Lund.
In the last week, the mountain board in Hardangervidda also opened to give 5,000 crowns compensation to hunters who kill a reindeer with a positive scrapie test.
DIRECTOR: Ellen Hambro from the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Photo: Christopher Isachsen Sandøy / NRK
Discuss the way forward
Last week, both the Minister of Agriculture and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority said it was too early to conclude what the superior should do to stop the possible spread of scrapie in Hardangervidda.
It is a progressing discussion and test results from the rest of the hunt at Hardangervidda will be further included in the assessments.
So far, 700 samples have been received and the Norwegian Environment Agency now expects up to 300 more.
– I trust that the Norwegian Environment Agency and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority will follow up on this case. We don’t have much time, but we do have enough time to find the right measures, Minister Olaug Bollestad (KrF) told NRK last week.
