Norway disputes grounds of China ban on imported salmon

Norway’s seafood council rejected concerns Thursday that salmon exported to China posed a hazard, South China Morning Post reported . A report this week citing Norway’s food safety authority said China would end imports of Norwegian whole salmon until the fish could be certified as coming from waters free of a disease that can cause massive farmed fish deaths. The seafood council said the disease could not be transmitted to humans or make them ill. Zhou Zhuocheng, a fisheries expert at the China Fisheries Association, said the chances were “very slim” of introducing the virus into China through imported whole salmon. Ties between the countries have been strained since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010.