Agence France Presse / May 25, 2000, Thursday
STOCKHOLM, May 25 -- Norwegian-bred salmon may have been genetically modified and exposed to cancer-causing vaccines, a former inspector of fish in Norway alleged Thursday in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.
"The salmon of the (Norwegian) fjords is not a wild fish," Odd Lindberg. "It is the result of a cross between the genes of various kinds of wild salmon in order to produce a quick yield and a short reproductive cycle."
He added that Norwegian salmon farms were environmentally conducive to the spread of viruses, bacteria and lice whose potential threat to the fish population often led farmers to introduce carcinogenic insecticides into the water.
However, Lindberg's allegations were dismissed Thursday as "nonsense" by Norway's salmon farmers.
"The production of salmon is the best documented and the best controlled of all kinds of food production in Norway," said Kjersti Bruheim, a spokesman for the country's salmon breeders.
Lindberg is no stranger to controversy. He raised eyebrows at the beginning of the 1980s when he made a series of allegations relating to the hunting of seals in Norway.
(posted without permission)
