Concerned ornithologists are asking the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to introduce stricter measures to avoid a new outbreak of bird flu. The risk of infection to humans is considered low by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, but we are concerned about infection between animals. Everyone who has poultry must be aware of the infection in wild birds, protect their own birds against infection and monitor the birds' state of health, says Anne Marie Jahr of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.

"Since about May 25, crews have been seeing multiple species showing what we believe are signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The signs we are seeing widespread is a headshaking that we equate to "getting the cobwebs out", like a person may do when they first wake up. This behavior occurs regularly every couple minutes. This behavior has been observed in: black brant, cackling geese, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, lapland longspurs, spectacled eiders, emperor geese, greater white-fronted geese, sabines gulls, glaucous gulls, and red-necked phalaropes."

Over the past five days there have been increasing reports of unusual behavior in a variety of bird species including brant goose, snow goose, white-fronted goose, and Canada goose.

During February and March, six new findings of highly pathogenic bird flu virus (HPAI) were made in sea eagles in the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Trøndelag, Nordland and Troms and Finnmark. Thus far, eight reliable detections have been made in sea eagles in Norway this bird flu season, which is unique in the European context.