Publications

• Granstad, Silje; Tønnessen, Ragnhild; Ytrehus, Bjørnar; Descamps, Sebastien; Moe, Børge & Strøm, Hallvard [Show all 16 contributors for this article] (2026). Multiple introductions of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses into the High Arctic: Svalbard and Jan Mayen, 2022-2025. Journal of General Virology. ISSN 0022-1317. 107(8), p. 1–25. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.002305. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Between 2022 and 2025, highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) of clade 2.3.4.4b, including four distinct H5 Eurasian (EA) genotypes, were detected in wild birds and mammals in the Svalbard Archipelago and on the island of Jan Mayen. We describe their epidemiology and genomic characteristics to improve understanding of HPAIV occurrence and transmission in the High Arctic. The initial cases in 2022 occurred during summer and involved a glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) and great skuas (Stercorarius skua) on Svalbard and Jan Mayen, representing the first detections of HPAIVs in the High Arctic. Three HPAIV genotypes were identified: EA-2020-C (H5N1), EA-2021-AB (H5N1), and EA-2021-I (H5N5). In 2023, HPAIVs were detected in a broader range of bird species, and retrospectively in an Atlantic walrus reported by another research group (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus). Genotypes identified in 2023 were EA-2020-C (H5N1), EA-2021-I (H5N5), and EA-2022-BB (H5N1). No cases were reported in 2024. In 2025, EA-2021-I (H5N5) was detected in Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) on Svalbard, without preceding detections in wild birds. The foxes exhibited neurological symptoms, and necropsy of one individual revealed the presence of feathers in its stomach. All sequenced viruses from the Arctic foxes uniquely carried the combination of PB2-E627K and PB1-H115Q, which is associated with mammalian adaptation. The detection of multiple genotypes indicates repeated and independent introductions of HPAIVs into these regions. The co-circulation of genetically distinct virus strains in areas of high bird density further suggests that Arctic breeding grounds may facilitate local viral amplification, reassortment, and subsequent dissemination along migratory flyways, including transcontinental spread.

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• Rosendal, G. Kristin & Skjærseth, Jon Birger (2026). Global health governance and multinational meat corporations: Breeding in response to emerging infectious diseases (EID). Full text in Research Archive
• Aguilar-Støen, Mariel; Eldevik-Stjernqvist, Ada & Rødvik, Trym Daniel (2026). The good life, African swine fever and rural transformations in Norway. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the wake of the African Swine Fever outbreak in Sweden in 2023, Norway decided to eradicate its own wild boar population. While the disease only affects wild boar and domestic pigs, it has affected hunting, farming and the overall relationship between rural populations and their natural environment. Simultaneously, the last decades have seen a significant agrarian restructuring in which specialization and intensification have been the norm. Today, only three supply chains deliver to the market in what has effectively become a market triopoly, leading to corporate concentration and oligopsony or even monopsony in some areas for farmers. As such, a constellation of socio-natural moments is differentially affected by the threat of the disease, leading to policy changes, supply chain adaptations and changes in rural aspirations to a good life. Focusing here on the latter, this paper seeks to contribute to earlier debates by treating aspirations as socially embedded and collectively mediated orientations toward the future. As such, aspirations are articulated through concerns that exceed the individual and even the household. They are bound up with the future of the village, the farm, the forest, the pork sector, and the wider rural social fabric. We seek to analyse the intersections of i) the collective reproduction of rural life, ii) territorial belonging, iii) moral obligations to the collective, and iv) the notion of a bio-secure modernity. As such, moving beyond the notion of aspirations as simply an expression of lifestyle preferences, this paper critically engages with disease as a driver of agrarian change.

• Aguilar-Støen, Mariel (2025). One Health -economic and ecological perspectives. Full text in Research Archive

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