On April 10 earlier this year, the couple Kristoffer and Anne Røren received a phone call from their daughter. They had to hurry home, there was a serious problem with several of their cows.
The Røren couple own a large farm in Hokksund, and were out skiing when they were told that several of their animals had become ill and a cow had already died.
– We were at the cabin on a ski trip when it started. That Saturday, the replacement and our daughter were greeted by the fact that there was a sick and a dead cow in the barn on the morning twig. It can happen that an animal dies, but then she called again throughout the day and said that several had fallen over, says Kristoffer Røren to Dagbladet.
Røren says that he has never seen or heard of a similar incident, and the sight that met him when he came to the farm was brutal.
– We groped a bit blindly to begin with, but the situation escalated quickly and eventually we just had to start killing the animals.
Over the next few days, 50 of the 140 cows on the farm died. 41 out of 60 dairy cows lost their lives.
Drammens Tidende has previously mentioned the case. They write that the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has stated that the farmer and local veterinarian have handled the case correctly and that no one can be blamed for the situation that arose.
– Cried all week
– For my part, I had to shoot the animals as they became very ill. I just had to do that job and made myself “hard” while it was going on. In retrospect, I noticed that the incident was tougher than I had thought, says Kristoffer Røren.
ON THE FARM: Several cows lost their lives on Kristoffer and Anne Røren’s farm in April. It was a bad experience for the couple. Photo: Private
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Røren says that the incident really affected his wife and that many tears were shed due to the brutal deaths they witnessed.
– Why did the cows get sick?
– We had got a dead cat into a round ball. It had the botulism bacterium in it. When they ate the hay with the cat in it, it became deadly.
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Extremely toxic
– It was a real blow to get. We do what we can to keep the animals healthy, but here we had nothing to show for it. It proves how brutal nature is. A representative from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has told us that small amounts of this poison can kill a million people and that it is among the worst poisons in existence.
– If the poison had been distributed exactly in all the feed, all the animals would have died, says Røren.
On The Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s websites It is said that botulism is caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The toxin can cause paralysis and severe poisoning. The bacterium often originates from the soil or intestines of animals.
WAS SHOCKED: Anne and Kristoffer Røren got a real shock when 50 cows lost their lives in a few days. Photo: Private
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– Did it take a long time before you found out what had happened?
– We were pretty sure on Monday. Then we found the remains of the dead cat in leftovers. On Tuesday, the autopsy report showed that it was botulism.
The pocket doctor writes that botulism is a disease that strikes nervous system and causes paralysis. The disease is caused by toxins (toxins) produced by the botulism bacterium, known as Clostridium botulinum, one of the most potent toxins we know.
There are several types of the botulism bacterium, four of which can cause disease in humans.
– This we live by
Røren has run the farm in Hokksund for over 30 years and says that he has never experienced a similar incident. Luckily for him and his family, they had insurance in place.
– Luckily we have insurance that covered quite a lot. But we did not receive milk for a month, or slaughter for more than three months. This is what we live by, so it was a real push anyway.
Arouses attention with this
– One of the most dangerous diseases
In 2018, eleven people were hospitalized in Jutland in Denmark with symptoms of the very dangerous stomach poisoning bacterium botulism, also called sausage poisoning.
Then senior researcher at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Georg Kapperud, told Dagbladet that it is one of the most dangerous diseases they know about.
He says that there are three types of botulism – and that one of them is transmitted via food.
The symptoms will then usually come after 12-36 hours, and are neurological.
– It can be dry mouth, eyelid paralysis, double vision, speech problems, paralysis and constipation, says Kapperud, who says that it is very important that those who have ingested the bacterium get antidote as soon as possible.
– It is not a question of a single paralysis, but a paralysis that spreads down the body, and eventually paralyzes the breathing muscles which means that the patient will be able to stop breathing. The mortality rate is 10 percent.
