According to the EU plant health law, all Member States must carry out annual surveys for priority pests and emergency measure pests. However, surveys are not required for pests which, due to unsuitable ecoclimatic conditions, cannot become established in the considered Member State. This report presents our assessment of the suitability of the present Finnish climate for the establishment of Fusarium circinatum, the causal agent of pine pitch canker (PPC) and damping-off of pine seedlings, and which is regulated in the EU by emergency control measures. We assessed the suitability of the Finnish climate for the establishment of F. circinatum outdoors by developing a global CLIMEX model for the potential range of PPC. Based on it, we assessed the likelihood of the Finnish climate for being suitable for the occurrence of PPC outdoors to be low, with a low level of uncertainty, and for the establishment of F. circinatum outdoors to be low, with a high level of uncertainty. In addition, based on a literature review, we assessed the likelihood of the temperature and moisture conditions in Finnish forest nurseries being suitable for the establishment of F. circinatum to be high, with a high level of uncertainty.

Signs of impaired thiamine (vitamin B1) status in feeding-migrating Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were studied in three Baltic Sea areas, which differ in the proportion and nutritional composition of prey fish sprat (Sprattus sprattus) and herring (Clupea harengus). The concentration of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) increased in salmon with dietary lipids and n-3 PUFAs, and the hepatic peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration increased exponentially with increasing n-3 PUFA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) concentration, whereas hepatic total thiamine concentration, a sensitive indicator of thiamine status, decreased with the increase in both body lipid and n-3 PUFA or DHA concentration. The hepatic glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity was suppressed by high dietary lipids. In salmon muscle and in prey fish, the proportion of thiamine pyrophosphate increased, and that of free thiamine decreased, with increasing body lipid content or PUFAs, or merely DHA. The thiamine status of salmon was impaired mainly due to the peroxidation of n-3 PUFAs, whereas lipids as a source of metabolic energy had less effect. Organochlorines or general oxidative stress did not affect the thiamine status. The amount of lipids, and, specifically, their long-chain n-3 PUFAs, are thus responsible for generating thiamine deficiency, and not a prey fish species per se.

Riskiprofiilissa arvioitiin turkistarhauksen aiheuttamaa tautiriskiä ihmisille Suomessa. Turkistarhaus luo otolliset olot taudinaiheuttajien lisääntymiselle, leviämiselle ja useiden taudinaiheuttajien muuntumiselle. Erityisesti minkki on tehokas useiden eri virusten säilymö. Turkiseläimistä otetaan hyvin vähän näytteitä tautitutkimuksiin, joten niiden perusteella ei voida päätellä tautien esiintymisestä suomalaisilla turkistarhoilla. Ihmisten ja turkiseläinten välillä leviäviä taudinaiheuttajia ja muita mikrobeita ovat erityisesti hengitystievirukset, ulosteperäiset taudinaiheuttajat ja antibiooteille resistentit bakteerit. Ne aiheuttavat terveysriskin turkistarhojen työntekijöille ja heidän lähipiirilleen. Erityisesti influenssavirukset voivat turkistarhaoloissa muuntua vakavaksi eri nisäkkäisiin helposti leviäväksi taudiksi. Turkiseläinten taudinaiheuttajien tärkeimpiä lähteitä ovat tarhalla käyvät ihmiset, rehu ja muut eläimet. Turkistarhoilla tautisuojaustoimenpiteet ovat usein puutteellisia. Niiden kohentaminen ja rehuketjun asiallinen riskinhallinta parantaisivat taudeilta suojautumista.

The Viljaseula 2022 publication contains key data on the quality and safety monitoring of the Finnish cereal harvest carried out by the Plant Analysis laboratory at the Finnish Food Authority. Information on the quality of cereals from the 2022 harvest is shown by region based on the regional division of ELY centres and by grain variety. Regional and varietal information may have been provided where there were enough samples. Quality information has also been provided for organic grain where there were at least 20 samples. The information is provided in the form of brief texts for each grain variety and supplemented with tables, graphs and maps. The publication also has growers’ yield forecasts for all grain varieties. Quality and safety monitoring of the cereal harvest has been carried out since 1966. Monitoring is sample research. The information is based on farms selected for the samples and so the results represent farms of different sizes, different production trends and production methods – in practice cultivation across the country. The material consists of grain samples sent in by growers, background factors on the samples and the results of the analyses conducted by the Finnish Food Authority. The samples are representative of both the grain sold on the market and grain remaining in the farms. Monitoring provides a reliable picture of the quality of the Finnish cereal harvest. An advantage of long-term monitoring is good comparability from one year to the next. Open information about median quality results is published on the Ruokavirasto.fi website each autumn. Open information makes up-to-date research information available quickly and visually. The information is presented in the autumn as soon as the results of the analyses are ready and is added to throughout the autumn. Growers have had access to the results of the examinations of the samples they have sent as soon as the samples are ready. The annual Viljaseula publication collates the information on grain quality in one place. Domestic grain production is a necessary part of our security of supply. Finland is the world’s northernmost agricultural country, which brings its own climate challenges. No two growing seasons are the same in Finland and the climate is also changing. This makes it important to provide reliable and up-to-date information for the whole food chain on the quality, quantity and safety of the cereal harvest. To support an increase in the use and cultivation of oilseed and protein crops, information is needed on the harvest of broad beans (Vicia faba) and oleaginous plants. Since 2018, samples of broad beans, rape and turnip rape have also been included in quality monitoring. As of 2022, fiel pea is also included.

Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders with known natural occurrence in humans and a few other mammalian species. The diseases are experimentally transmissible, and the agent is derived from the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC), which is misfolded into a pathogenic conformer, designated PrPSc (scrapie). Aggregates of PrPSc molecules, constitute proteinaceous infectious particles, known as prions. Classical scrapie in sheep and goats and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids are known to be infectious under natural conditions. In CWD, infected animals can shed prions via bodily excretions, allowing direct host-to-host transmission or indirectly via prion-contaminated environments. The robustness of prions means that transmission via the latter route can be highly successful and has meant that limiting the spread of CWD has proven difficult. In 2016, CWD was diagnosed for the frst time in Europe, in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and European moose (Alces alces). Both were diagnosed in Norway, and subsequently, more cases were detected in a semi-isolated wild reindeer population in the Nordfella area, in which the frst case was identifed. This population was culled, and all reindeer (approximately 2400) were tested for CWD; 18 positive animals, in addition to the first diagnosed case, were found. After two years and around 25,900 negative tests from reindeer (about 6500 from wild and 19,400 from semi-domesticated) in Norway, a new case was diagnosed in a wild reindeer buck on Hardangervidda, south of the Nordfella area, in 2020. Further cases of CWD were also identified in moose, with a total of eight in Norway, four in Sweden, and two cases in Finland. The mean age of these cases is 14.7 years, and the pathological features are different from North American CWD and from the Norwegian reindeer cases, resembling atypical prion diseases such as Nor98/atypical scrapie and H- and L-forms of BSE. In this review, these moose cases are referred to as atypical CWD. In addition, two cases were diagnosed in red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Norway. The emergence of CWD in Europe is a threat to European cervid populations, and, potentially, a food-safety challenge, calling for a swift, evidence-based response. Here, we review data on surveillance, epidemiology, and disease characteristics, including prion strain features of the newly identifed European CWD agents.

Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen of cattle. It causes a wide variety of clinical diseases, including mastitis, respiratory disease, arthritis, and otitis media. M. bovis has evolved several mechanisms to avoid the host’s immune system, no effective commercial vaccines are available, and antibiotic resistance is increasingly seen in contemporary strains. The most common route of transmission between herds is the purchase of a latent carrier animal. M. bovis can spread silently within a herd, and once established in a dairy herd it is difficult to eradicate. Hence, it is of utmost importance to try to control and prevent the spread of M. bovis. Sensitive and cost-effective diagnostic methods to detect latent carrier animals, as well as methods that could be used in herd certification are needed. The possible transmission of M. bovis through assisted reproduction needs to be investigated more closely. This thesis examines the course of M. bovis infection in Finnish dairy farms, presents a new route of entry of M. bovis into naive dairy herds, and describes methods that could be utilized in the control of M. bovis infections. In study I, the course of M. bovis infection was followed over two years on 19 recently infected dairy farms. The aim was to identify diagnostic methods that could be used to assess whether the herd had reached a low-risk infection status. In 17 herds, a few cases of clinical mastitis were detected, and these mostly occurred within two months after the index case. On two farms, M. bovis only caused respiratory disease in young stock, and no clinical mastitis was detected. The prevalence of M. bovis in nasal (NS) and deep nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs taken from young calves varied from zero to 75% per herd among the studied calves. An in-house MilA ELISA detected more positive serum samples than the commercial BioX ELISA. The proportion of MilA-positive young stock followed the patterns seen in NS and NP of calves, but no such association was seen in BioX ELISA results. In cows, despite the infection appearing to have resolved in some herds, the proportion of MilA antibody-positive cows remained high for at least one and half year after the detection of the index case. According to the results, M. bovis can be present in calves alone without causing mastitis in cows. Several methods need to be applied to verify the herd infection status. These include regular monitoring for M. bovis in clinical mastitis and calf pneumonia cases, combined with regular PCR testing of nasal swabs from calves and sera for the detection of antibodies against M. bovis using the MilA ELISA. The transmission of M. bovis via semen has been speculated. When epidemiological data to assess the infection source were collected in study I, suspicion arose that contaminated commercial artificial insemination (AI) semen could have been the source in two closed dairy herds. National health care and farm registers were used to collect farm data and farmers were interviewed. Whole genome sequencing was used to compare the genomes of isolated strains. Epidemiological analysis did not reveal any other source than contaminated semen from one bull used for artificial insemination in the cows that were the first ones to develop clinical mastitis in both herds. Core genome multilocus sequence type analysis supported this. The bull had secreted M. bovis intermittently and for only a short time into semen during an approximately seven-week period. On both farms, the incubation period between insemination and clinical mastitis was 32 days. To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe the transmission of M. bovis via AI. Even though this appears to be rare, commercial AI semen needs to be taken into account as a possible transmission route. Following the detection of M. bovis in Finland, a voluntary control program was established. One part of the program is NS taken from young calves and tested for M. bovis to indicate the infection status of the herd. In study III, the suitability of this method was assessed and compared with NP sampling. Furthermore, NS and NP sampling of pneumonic calves to detect M. bovis was compared with bronchoalveolar lavage sampling. Altogether, 1037 NS were taken from calves in 30 recently infected herds, and NP samples were also taken from 284 calves. The overall prevalence in NS was 29.6% and the highest prevalence of 43% was seen in 31- to 60-day-old calves. Thereafter, the shedding rate decreased. At the calf level, NP sampling detected M. bovis in 47% and NS in 33% of studied calves. At the herd level, NS sampling was more sensitive, as it classified 51 out 54 herd visits with a positive infection status as infected, whereas using NP sampling, the respective figure was 43 out of 54 visits (p = 0.061). The reason for the difference seen at the calf and herd levels is the sampling protocol. We took only five NP samples, but number of NS swabs varied from six to 28, depending on the herd size. We conclude that NS swabs taken from calves under six months of age and analyzed with real-time PCR represent a cost-efficient method to be used in a control program. If calves suffering from acute respiratory disease need to be examined, NP samples are a practical and sensitive method to detect M. bovis. The effect of two concentrations of a gentamycin-tylosin-linco/spectinomycin (GTLS) antibiotic combination and a fluoroquinole antibiotic, ofloxacin, on the viability of M. bovis in commercial-scale AI semen production using modern semen extender with plant-derived protein was investigated. A reference strain and a wild-type strains isolated from semen in study II were used in spiking. Three different protocols to extract M. bovis DNA from semen were also compared. At a high spiking concentration of 106 CFU/mL, none of the studied antibiotics had a bactericidal effect. At a low spiking concentration of 103 CFU/mL, the growth of the wild-type strain was inhibited by all other antibiotic protocols except for the low GTLS concentration, which is stated in EU regulation and the OIE Terrestrial Code. Instead, the high GTLS protocol was the only one that inhibited the growth of the reference strain. At a low M. bovis contamination level, GTLS used at a high concentration, according to the Certified Semen Services protocol, is more efficient than GTLS used according to the OIE Terrestrial Code. The Instagene™ matrix was the most efficient method to extract M. bovis DNA from semen.

Suomalaisten lisäaineiden saantia arvioitiin lisäaineasetuksessa (Euroopan Parlamentin ja Neuvoston asetus (EY) N:o 1333/2008) määrättyjen enimmäiskäyttömäärien, aiemmassa kansallisessa arviossa selvitettyjen teollisuuden todellisten käyttömäärien sekä lisäainetta sisältävien tuotteiden arvioitujen tuotenimikeosuuksien avulla. Tuotenimikeosuuksia selvitettiin käymällä läpi K-ryhmän ja S-ryhmän verkkokauppojen tuotevalikoimaa tutkittujen lisäaineiden saannin kannalta oleellisista elintarvikeryhmistä. Arvio suomalaisten lasten ja aikuisten saantimääristä tehtiin EFSA:n kehittämällä FAIM 2.0 -työkalulla. Tuotenimikeosuuksia hyödyntävän arvion perusteella ainoastaan kolmen lisäaineen saanti ylitti niille määritetyn hyväksyttävän päiväsaannin enimmäismäärän kyseistä elintarvikeparannetta runsaasti saavilla kuluttajilla. Nämä lisäaineet olivat E407, E338-343 & E450-452 sekä E160e. Keskiarvosaannit olivat näidenkin lisäaineiden osalta selvästi alhaisemmat. Mahdollisten riskinhallintatoimien kuten ruoankäyttösuositusten tueksi tarvittaisiin näistä kolmesta lisäaineesta tarkempi arvio, jossa aineistona olisi elintarvikkeista mitattuja todellisia pitoisuuksia sekä tuoreita, yksityiskohtaisempia (yksilötason) ruoankäyttötietoja. Mitattuja pitoisuuksia voitaisiin osittain myös korvata valmistajilta saaduilla todellisilla käyttömäärillä.

Sales of veterinary antibiotics turned to a 5% increase in 2021. The result, however, was the second lowest since the monitoring began. The majority of overall sales consisted of products for individual treatment and the proportion of products for group treatment was roughly over a quarter. The biggest increase in sales was noted for orally administered sulfa-trimethoprim-combination and is partly explained by the increased manufacture of medicated feed for fur animals. Increased sales were also noted for antibiotic tablets for companion animals. Injectable penicillin continued to be the most sold veterinary antibiotic. Sales of critically important antibiotics (HPCIA, WHO) for treatment of animals decreased further and remained very low. The antibiotic resistance situation in bacteria from animals and food has remained relatively good in Finland. However, in certain bacterial species resistance was detected in moderate or high levels. Therefore, the need remains to further emphasise the preventive measures and prudent use of antibiotics. It is important to follow the Finnish recommendations for the use of antimicrobials in animals. Among salmonella from food-producing animals and campylobacter from broilers, resistance levels were low. Since 2014, the proportions of fluoroquinolone and tetracycline resistant broiler campylobacter isolates have varied. Among porcine campylobacter, fluoroquinolone resistance has increased. Resistance situation among indicator E. coli from pigs has remained good. The prevalence of ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria in slaughtered pigs increased in 2021 while no ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria were detected in pork and beef at retail. MRSA bacteria were detected more than previously in fresh pork at retail. The resistance situation among pathogenic bacteria isolated from food-producing animals remained similar to 2020. Resistance was overall low in bovine and porcine respiratory pathogens as well as in pathogens isolated from broilers. Resistance was still detected most in enterotoxigenic E. coli from pigs. Among bacteria isolated from companion animals, the changes in resistance situation were mostly small. The proportion of canine E. coli strains resistant to third-generation cephalosporins was the lowest since the start of the monitoring.