THEIR fondness for rape and pillage gave the Vikings a bad name. But now their genes will arrive again in Britain — via a Danish sperm bank.

The bank is recruiting 100 Scandinavians to supply sperm to father 1,000 British babies during the next year. The drive is in response to a shortage of donors in Britain caused by a change to the law.

From April, fertility clinics must disclose the identity of the father of any child born as a result of sperm donation. Although men who donate before the deadline will be guaranteed anonymity potential donors are being put off by the possibility that their child may one day seek them out.

Cryos, a sperm bank based in Aarhus, Denmark, has had a rush of inquiries from British clinics wishing to stock up before the deadline. Sperm acquired before April can be used for a year under conditions of anonymity.

After that it will not be permitted to use sperm in this country unless the donor, whether British or foreign, is identified. Cryos already has a pool of donors approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the government fertility watchdog.

Ole Schou, managing director of Cryos, said: “Clinics have contacted us in the past few months because donors are disappearing in Britain. We have 40 donors who have been approved by the HFEA to be used in the UK. Our goal is to increase this to 100 donors. With a limit of 10 pregnancies per donor, we should be able to supply 1,000 offspring.”

Cryos has 250 donors on its books, mostly students from the town’s nearby university. Schou had the idea to set up the clinic as a commercial venture when he was a business student. He aimed to capitalise on image of Danes abroad as a healthy, good-looking people and to tap into the ready supply of donors in need of pocket money on student campuses.

The firm already exports sperm to 40 countries to meet demand for donors who are 6ft tall and blond with blue eyes.

The University of Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine is one of the clinics considering Danish imports. Julian Jenkins, its clinical director, said: “I would be very surprised if we did not have a sperm shortage in Britain. We were aware that there would be a potential problem and so we have started to look overseas.”

Cryos already exports bulk supplies to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

The shortages have forced some British clinics to ration treatment. Cardiff Assisted Reproduction Unit has admitted that it will need to turn infertile couples away, while the Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Fertility in Sheffield has limited treatment to patients in the immediate area.

The Sheffield clinic is also encouraging couples who could be treated by simple donor insemination to consider in vitro fertilisation, which is a more invasive and expensive procedure but uses less sperm.

Dr Allan Pacey, a spokesman for the British Fertility Society, warned that many more clinics will be forced to import supplies from Denmark.

“A lot of clinics are experiencing the shortage in advance of April,” he said. “Anyone donating after April is going to worry whether, in 18 years’ time, they are going to have a knock on the door from their offspring.

“While Cryos is a very good clinic, it is sad that we need to go to these lengths for something that we could quite easily be providing within the UK.”

Last week the Department of Health launched a £200,000 campaign to recruit men to donate sperm and women to give eggs to infertile couples.The campaign will reassure donors that they will not be obliged to support the child financially. At present, 250 men donate sperm each year and 1,100 women donate eggs.

Melanie Johnson, minister for public health, said: “As well as boosting the number of egg and sperm donors we want to encourage people to see the value of donating and realise what it means to the recipients — that they are giving families hope.”

A further measure to boost donations being considered by the HFEA is to pay donors more. At the moment those who give eggs or sperm get just £15 plus “reasonable” expenses. Under the new arrangements, payments could increase to £50 for a sperm sample and £1,000 for a donated egg.

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