One of Norcod's cod farms.
Photo: Norcod.
The Norwegian cod farming company Norcod reported today that, following testing carried out in relation to the planned fish harvest at its Mausund site in the municipality of Frøya, Trøndelag county, Norway, it has detected the presence of the Francisella bacteria (Francisella noatunensis).
According to the company's release, the Mausund facility has a total of four cages, and the bacteria has been detected in individual fish in one of them, which is currently being harvested.
Francisella noatunensis—a notifiable bacterium in cod—is a facultative intracellular bacterium that causes the systemic granulomatous inflammatory disease, francisellosis, in this species. Currently, there is no vaccine or medical treatment available for this disease.
In its statement, Norcod also noted that this is a known disease that has been detected mainly in facilities located further south, and that this is the first time the bacteria has been detected in one of its sites.
Diagnosed in both wild and farmed cod, especially in southern and western Norway, Francisella is associated with high mortality in farmed cod; however, the Norwegian cod producer has noted that so far, it has not observed any significant increase in mortality among the fish being harvested.
Norcod said it is managing the situation in accordance with established procedures and regulatory requirements and continues to closely monitor the facility for the remainder of the harvest period. Harvesting of the cage in question will be completed within the next two weeks.
The Norwegian cod farmer also added that the detection is not expected to affect planned operations, harvest volumes, or the projected growth plan. The news of the bacteria detection comes just days after it presented its Q2 2026 results, in which it nearly doubled its quarterly harvest compared to Q1, as the company continued to build biomass ahead of higher planned production volumes.
"We have good control of the situation and are following our established procedures. Our experienced farming teams are well trained to manage situations such as this," Christian Riber, CEO of Norcod, said, commenting on the situation.
"The fish at Mausund are already being harvested as planned and, based on what we are seeing today, we do not expect this to have any notable impact on mortality, our operations or projected growth plan," Riber added.
As the company announced in June, when it signed an exclusive juvenile cod supply agreement with Havland for its cod farming operations in Norway, its planned growth is expected to reach between 13,000 and 15,000 tonnes of snow cod harvested in 2027, and 25,000 tonnes in 2029.
