You want to fork() that into the background... as such 
my $child;
unless($child = fork()) {
  open (FH, "$statusfile") or die "Unable to open file: $!";
  my $DELAY = 5;
  for(;;) {
    while(<FH>) {
      print;
    }
    sleep $DELAY;
    seek(FH, 0, 1);
  }

}
# continue with main program
kill(15, $child); #when you want it to stop

[download]
Update wog reminded me kill needed a signal passed!

                - Ant
                - Some of my best work - Fish Dinner

In reply to Re: running a loop in background... by suaveant
in thread running a loop in background... by Anonymous Monk

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