Deadly European virus found in B.C. salmon


Experts say a highly infectious virus found in wild salmon on B.C.'s central coast could have a devastating impact on the province's wild salmon and herring.

Simon Fraser University Prof. Rick Routledge discovered the disease known as Infectious Salmon Anemia, or ISA, in two of 48 sockeye smolts collected.

The infection was diagnosed by Dr. Fred Kibenge, an employee at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I., who notified the CFIA.

Routledge, who's doing a long-term study on the collapse of Rivers Inlet sockeye, says the exotic disease could have a devastating impact on wild salmon in B.C.

Alexandra Morton, a biologist and long-time critic of salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago, says the European strain of the virus could only have come from the farmed Atlantic salmon in the area.

Routledge says the possible impact of the virus can't be taken lightly and there must be an immediate response to assess the extent of the outbreak and the possible source.

A statement issued by the B.C. Salmon Farmers said the CFIA has yet to confirm the finding, but the disease would not likely affect wild Pacific .... http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/10/17/bc-isa-infects-salmon.html?cmp=rss

Wow, sounds horrible...

Can you say CLOSED CONTAINMENT?

i sure trust the bc salmon farmers. first, they said there was no disease and now that that is proven wrong they say it won't "likely" affect pacific salmon.

it's interesting that there has been a corporate campaign to dismiss any and all claims against the farms (usually by attacking the messengers). these claims are all now proving to be true. the corporate apologists continue spewing their misinformation and lies about the dirty industry that is fish farming.

I think we're next going to find out that this virus has been on the West Coast for quite some time now.

Another long-expected confirmation with potentially horrific implications...
And once again, the pathetic reality is that it will be up to us to offer the reminder:

POLICY IS NOT AN ACCIDENT!

Just as with the game farming fiasco:
No prior analysis or public review.
No precautionary principle.
No polluter-pay principle.

(so not exactly principled decisions)

Oh, and regardless of how bad it gets...
There will be no retreat.


Science Section
October 17, 2011
Salmon-Killing Virus Seen for First Time in the Wild on the Pacific Coast
By CORNELIA DEAN and RACHEL NUWER
A lethal and highly contagious marine virus has been detected for the first time in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest, researchers in British Columbiasaid on Monday, stirring concern that it could spread there, as it has in Chile, Scotland and elsewhere.

Farms hit by the virus, infectious salmon anemia, have lost 70 percent or more of their fish in recent decades. But until now, the virus, which does not affect humans, had never been confirmed on the West Coast of North America.

The researchers, from Simon Fraser University and elsewhere, said at a news conference in Vancouver that the virus had been found in 2 of 48 juvenile fish collected as part of a study of sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet, on the central coast of British Columbia. The study was undertaken after scientists observed a decline in the number of young sockeye.

Richard Routledge, an environmental scientist at the university who leads the sockeye study, suggested that the virus had spread from the province’s aquaculture industry, which has imported millions of Atlantic salmon eggs over the last 25 years, primarily from Iceland and Scandinavia. He acknowledged that no direct evidence of that link existed, but noted that the two fish had tested positive for the European strain of infectious salmon anemia.

The virus could have “a devastating impact” not just on the region’s farmed and wild salmon but on the many species that depend on them in the food web, like grizzly bears, killer whales and wolves, Dr. Routledge said. “No country has ever gotten rid of it once it arrives,” he said in a statement.

The only barrier between the salmon farms and wild fish is a net, he noted at the news conference, opening the way for “pathogens sweeping in and out.” No vaccine or treatment exists for infectious salmon anemia.

Gary Marty, the fish pathologist for the province’s Ministry of Agriculture, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would seek fish samples from the researchers and run its own tests.

The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association, an industry group, said fish health departments had regularly tested for the virus on the farms “and have never found a positive case.” Dr. Marty confirmed that no cases had been found in that testing.

Still, “if these results are valid, this could be a threat to our business and the communities that rely on our productive industry,” said Stewart Hawthorn, the managing director for Grieg Seafood, an association member.

At the news conference, the Simon Fraser researchers said Fred Kibenge, a researcher at Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, the global center for tests detecting the virus, had confirmed its presence in the two fish. They called for widespread testing to determine where the virus exists in the region and in what fish.

Alexandra Morton, a researcher and activist who collected the sockeye samples and is an outspoken critic of salmon farming practices in British Columbia, called the virus “a cataclysmic threat” to both salmon and herring, which can also contract it.

“If we test five million fish and found two sick, O.K.,” she said. “But 48 in the middle of nowhere?” The inlet where the samples were taken is 60 miles from the nearest salmon farm, the researchers said.

Fishery experts with no connection to the study agreed that the threat was serious. James Winton, who leads the fish health research group at the Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle, an arm of the United States Geological Survey, called it a “disease emergency” and urged that research begin at once to determine on how far the virus had spread.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infectious salmon anemia virus morphed from a benign form in nature into a “novel virulent strain” when salmon stocks entered Norway’s densely packed salmon farms. Rather than getting picked off by a predator, a sick fish would undergo a slow death in a crowded pen, shedding virus particles.

Offshore saltwater pens supply most of the Atlantic salmon sold in the United States.

Rats! was kinda hoping it would attach itself to nets and immediately dissolve the first person to touch it.

No, really.

Checked with some Maine folks. They had it in some Atlantic Salmon pens. They killed out the pens and let the bay lie fallow for a year.

A "non-pathogenic" form of the virus has been seen in some other species in Maine.

It is all going to depend on the susceptibility of local fish to the bug. Sp;ecies, even stocks within species, are more or less vulnerable to specific pathogen strains.

Another bit of information that will surely throw gas on this fire.

Some studies suggest that one of the vectors of the virus is sea lice. They move it from fish to fish and may be more effective than having the virus move through the water on its own.

In Canada this is going just like climate change talks...everyone knows it's happening, but those who benefit from it the most continue to say it needs "more research"...and we'll all get bit in the ass by it eventually.

Fish on...

Todd

Spot on, Todd.

Just like down here where we know that of all the H's, harvest is the one that is not the problem as it is totally under control.

It's like the cigarette/cancer link that was denied and questioned by the tobacco industry for years before it was accepted as fact. At least with tobacco an individual could take control and either not smoke or quit if they didn't trust the tobacco industry being right. With things like this fish virus and climate change there is nothing a person can do on the individual level and if the science indicating huge problems on these is correct it's going to screw everyone regardless of which side you believe. Industry has a piss poor track record for claiming all is well , being horrible wrong and sticking the public with cleaning up and fixing their "nothing will go wrong" messes.