A national notification portal for disease and mortality in wild fish was established in 2020 in cooperation between NVI and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA). The main purpose of this portal is to facilitate early detection of serious disease in wild fish by simplifying the reporting procedure.

The reports themselves and the subsequent diagnostic work provide an insight into the health of wild fish. In addition, health problems that are candidates for further attention through surveillance and monitoring are identified. The notification portal has thus become an integral part of health monitoring of wild fish both in freshwater and in the marine environment.

From 2022, the notification portal was linked to the NFSA health monitoring program in order to investigate the presence of cultivable virus and bacteria in wild fish reported. Accordingly, samples were mainly collected during disease outbreaks in wild populations, but also from individual fish showing adverse behaviour or other signs of ill health.

No viruses were detected by cultivation in selected cell lines, nor by specific qPCR.