Contagious Cod Virus Spreads – Tens of Thousands Dead

Over 200,000 cod have died at a fish farm in Nordland, Norway. A new virus is behind the mass deaths.

The viral disease, described as relatively new, is claiming lives among farmed Norwegian fish.

In November, over 200,000 cod died at a facility in Helgeland in Nordland County, according to Arve Olav Lervåg, production manager at Norcod’s fish farm.

‘Norcod can confirm that increased mortality was recorded in November at our facility in Bjørnvika in Nesna. In total, just over 200,000 fish have been lost,’ he told the news site Intrafish.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority carried out an inspection of the affected facility in December. They found around 4,700 dead fish and another 1,500 that had begun to rot, Intrafish reports.

The pox virus, known as cod gill pox virus (CGPV), causes severe damage to the gills and heart and has a high mortality rate.

The first reports of the virus in the Atlantic came in a study in 2024, after samples were taken from cod in Norwegian fish farms the year before.

^{Cover image: A female cod is emptied of its roe at a cod farm in Tromsø, Norway. Archive image. Photo: Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk/NTB/TT}