infectious salmon anaemia virus

The Association of Salmon Industry AG (SalmonChile) ensures that the latest cases of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus affected less than 1 per cent of the biomass of the Chilean industry.

The union explained that in the last month three companies in the Aysen region faced the presence of the virus and harvested beforehand. The companies are Pesquera Los Fiordos, Multiexport Foods and Salmones Camanchaca.

Last April, Los Fiordos was the first salmon firm to report the signs of the ISA virus in the fish from a cage in Garrao centre, located in the Association of Concessions (ACS) No. 18 D.

Days later, Multiexport detected ISA virus in one of the cages of the King production centre, located in the district N ° 20.

And last week, Salmones Camanchaca confirmed the finding of the virus in Izaza centre, located in the ACS No. 20, within the Macrozone 6.

According to the president of SalmonChile, Maria Eugenia Wagner, it is necessary to learn how to live with the virus, as it is normal in this type of industry.

Besides, she stressed that the regulation that started after the health, labour and economic crisis in 2007 and 2008 is 'paying off.'

"We are pleased that the regulation is working," she said. "On the way it is going to get better because we are learning as we practise but we can say that it has been successful and it makes it possible to support and take care of the sanitary asset," the executive added, according to the newspaper La Tercera.

Wagner explained that after the detection of ISA virus in these three farming centres, a 'sweep' has been performed, which includes monitoring and sampling of the 350 centres that currently have fish in the water.

Furthermore, in the areas considered as more critical, sampling are performed every 15 days in order to anticipate possible problems or outbreaks.

She also noted that while salmon mortality is "stable," SalmonChile works on vaccine development, farming mechanisms and drugs that make it possible to cope with ISA presence.

Meanwhile, Matias Medina, general manager of the Salmon Technological Institute (Intesal), noted that the latest finding of the virus, in a Camanchaca centre corresponds to an undetermined strain.

Anyway, the implementation of a crop protection plan was decided, which will run for 10 days, reported Radio Bio Bio.

Related articles:

- Concerning new ISA virus case in centre in Aysen

- ISA outbreak detected in salmon Aysen farm

By Analia Murias

United States

Synthetic Genomics Inc announced a new co-funded research agreement with ExxonMobil to develop algae biofuels from strains with significantly improved production characteristics by employing synthetic genomic science and technology.

Japan

A scientist has admitted having detected radioactive cesium in eels caught in a boundary river between the Tokyo and Chiba prefectures but claims local governments took no action for nearly two months despite having informed authorities promptly.

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials confirmed this week that farmed salmon escaped from an aquaculture site in the Fortune Bay area, and have turned up in the Garnish River.

Council president Don Hutchens said it poses multiple threats to the wild salmon, such as potential interbreeding between wild and farmed salmon, and spreading of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus.

He said the DFO is playing down the issue.

"We told them it was going to happen, they told us that we shouldn't fear about it, but there is no signs to say that we shouldn't fear," Hutchens said.

"In fact, what we do know is everywhere there's been a finfish farm agricultural site, wild Atlantic salmon populations have drastically declined," he added.

Hutchens said part of the problem is that the DFO does not report on escapes that it calls trickle escapes.

"We think that trickle escapes are quite significant — almost to the point that they're almost major escapes when they're done collectively. You could have up to a hundred salmon a day trickling out through the nets and escaping over the sides," Hutchens said.

"You add those up for the year, and you have quite a significant number of farmed salmon escaping into the wild."

No cause for concern, DFO says

Geoff Perry, with the regional aquaculture management of DFO, said there are no indicators to cause concern about spreading infection or disease to the wild population of the fish.

"The animals we sampled last week, we're running them through a full sweep of pathogen screening so we'll have some information on that in the next couple weeks," Perry said.

"But from what we visually looked at, these fish, there's no sea lice on them, and they're not exhibiting any signs of disease or external signs of disease," he added.

He said the fish likely got out during an increase in water levels during the fall or winter season.

"What's probably happened here is these fish got out some time over the winter during a storm, and eventually just poked their nose into a place where the environmental conditions were a little more favourable than the open ocean," Perry said.

However, Perry said there is concern that interbreeding will lead to a weaker generation of salmon in the wild.

"There's concern that if wild and farmed fish interbreed — that the resulting hybrids, farm-wild fish hybrids — will be less fit for the wild environment because farm salmon had been domesticated for traits that make them a very good food fish, but those same traits don't make for good survival in the wild, whereas wild fish have traits that make them very good to survive in the wild," Perry said.

Perry said they did not receive a report from any of the farms in the area, so they do not know which farm the fish escaped from.

Rare occurrence, association says

Cyr Couturier, the executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, repeats sentiments that the likelihood of ISA spreading is low.

"These are naturally occurring diseases that come from wild fish that are passed on to salmon in cages," Couturier said. "There's regular inspection and testing for that almost on a continuous basis by the government agencies and [Canadian Food Inspection Agency]."

Couturier also said that concern about interbreeding between wild and farmed salmon is low.

"This is one escape. It's not a huge escape, from what we can tell yet, and we don't think that there's going to be much interbreeding," he said. "We haven't seen it in 30 years in Newfoundland and Labrador."

Couturier said the association is doing an investigation to find out where exactly the fish escaped from.

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Ideas 24 things to do on the May 24th weekend You probably already have plans. But here are some ideas if you don"t

Chile's Vice Minister of Fishing, Pablo Galilea, has announced that Chile has plans to maintain its position as a world power in fisheries and aquaculture, and believes that his country's new fisheries law is just the tool to help Chile achieve this goal, reports Carly Wills.

Chile's ambitious new fisheries law (New General Law on Fisheries and Aquaculture No. 20.657) was presented during the European Seafood Exposition, held in Brussels in April. The main points of the law are sustainability, research, and inspection.

The Government of President Piñera believes that "with this law, everybody wins: the environment, fishermen, fisheries resources, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the country".

Chile exports seafood to over 100 destinations, and is a leader in trout farming, the second largest producer of salmon in the world, and an important provider of mussels. Fishing for many species takes place along Chile's extensive coastline, including: anchovy, mackerel, horse mackerel, sardines, hake, shrimp, squid, giant squid, toothfish, Chilean sea bass, sea urchins and clams. Other aquaculture species include abalone, oysters and cobia.

Sustainability

The primary objective of the new fisheries law is to ensure the sustainability of the fisheries resource. Under the new law a number of measures will be taken to achieve this, including introducing sustainable management standards such as Biological Reference Points (BRP) and Maximum Sustainable Yield. New definitions to assess fishery resources will now be classified as incipient, under full exploitation, overexploited, and collapsed, and under the new law it is mandatory for an Annual Public Account to be made so that the status of fish stocks is available to everyone.

Previously, Chile managed its resources based on a number of criteria (social, economic etc.), but never biological criteria or science – now a major aspect of the new fisheries law is to ensure that scientific advice is imposed over political or commercial considerations when it comes to making decisions such as setting quotas and area closures.

Plans are in place to establish Technical Scientific Committees (eight for fisheries and three for aquaculture), under the responsibility of the Fisheries Research Agency (IFOP), to ensure that the Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture has the information required to make these decisions.

The research aspect of the new law is very important, according to Mr Galilea: "If we know our seas better we will make better decisions", he said.

Measures to protect Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems will also be taken, including the prevention of bottom fishing in these areas until it is proven that it does not cause damage to the areas that are rich in coral, fish and hydrothermal vents.

An important part of proving that Chilean fish is sustainable is being able to show what has been caught and what has been landed. The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) has received a significant increase to its budget to implement measures to ensure that all catches and landings are reported. If there are any discrepancies then they will be charged to the reporting fisherman.

It is Sernapesca's responsibility to determine ports and authorised landing sites, implement and supervise the use of satellite positioning devices, the use of onboard cameras and landing certification.

Temporary Tradable Fishing Licenses have been introduced for vessels over 12m in length. These licenses are divisible and last for 20 years. After this period they can either be renewed or, depending on whether the owner has been responsible to the environment, fishing and regarding labour matters, rendered expired.

These licenses are also required to pay a patent and a specific tax, ensuring equal or higher revenues for the State.

In 2010 Chile agreed a package of measures to help restructure the aquaculture sector, following the outbreak of the ISA virus in 2007 which devastated the salmon industry. Major changes were made regarding food safety and the prevention of disease-related problems in the future.

The industry is now strictly inspected by the government and action is taken on any violations.

"The new procedures are a measure of reassurance and bring with them much lower health risks for the salmon industry than in 2007," said Mr Galilea.

The procedures introduced include: prohibition of new fish stocking or continuing operations where there are negative environmental indications; stock density directives for salmon growing areas; concessions for aquaculture limited to 25 years (and only considered for renewal if environmental impacts have been minimal); strict legislation for drug use; and strengthened legislation to prevent the escape of culture species.

All of these measures show that Chile is serious about maintaining its position as one of top 10 world powers in fisheries and aquaculture. "We aim to provide a range of high quality seafood products to European and emerging markets, with sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production at its core", said Mr Galilea.

Mr Galilea also said that Chile has plans to diversify its fisheries production into other areas of the country and to different species.

Welcome to GR, etc. With BC's provincial election less than 24 hours away, there's one issue that we can cover without fear of trespassing on media elections gag orders. Neither of the two parties likely to lead the next government oppose open-pen fish farming in the province.

Despite mountains of evidence suggesting the folly of concentrated feed lots for fish; the obvious ill effects on the fish bred in cramped captivity; dubious health benefit claims of a human diet including these drugged and unnaturally sustained creatures; proven dangers pathogens from these operations pose to wild fish; the standing on its head of the precautionary principle required to keep this industry afloat, with the many known and suspected negative effects it represents, the BC Liberals and BC New Democratic Party both essentially support business as usual.

It's all so much of more of the same for BC-based scientist and wild salmon crusader Alexandra Morton, who last week, along with Ecojustice filed a best practices law suit against salmon farming giant Marine Harvest and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, (DFO) for the alleged "transfer of diseased farmed Atlantic salmon into waters shared by wild fish." As disturbing as the ramifications of Marine Harvest's willful, and possibly illegal, endangering of wild salmon in this manner are, (not to mention the apparent lackadaisical policing of its own policies by the Department of Oceans and Fisheries appear to be in this case, and others) more so is what this case reveals about another frightening virus, joining the already devastating and universally feared ISA virus afflicting farmed salmon stock, and its possible release into the wild.

Alexandra Morton back in court in the first half.

And; this May 15th marks Nakba Day for those within occupied Palestine, and the millions more comprising the Palestinian diaspora. Nakba Day's modern manifestation commemorates the day after Israel's 1948 declaration of independence.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian writer and photojournalist specializing in the Middle East and Canadian foreign and military policy. He has lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade, based primarily in Jenin, Bethlehem and Gaza City. Jon's also reported from more than a dozen countries from the middle east, to Nepal, Western Sahara, the Basque country and right here in Canada. His articles and photographs are featured in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Le Monde diplomatique, The Progressive, Al Jazeera English among others. He is also a contributor, with Anthony Fenton to the book, 'Empire's Ally: Canada in Afghanistan.'

Jon Elmer and marking time passed in Occupied Palestine in the second half.

And, Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what's good to do in and around our city in the coming week. But first, Alexandra Morton and keeping PRV in its cage.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/   G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Gilad Atzmon, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, Ramzy Baroud, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Paul Cienfuegos, David Cromwell, Ezili Danto, Jon Elmer, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, Amy Goodman, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Julia Butterfly Hill, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Frances Moore Lappe, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Alexandra Morton, Loretta Napoleoni, Andrew Nikiforuk, Ken O'Keefe, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, Paul Craig Roberts, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Tim Shorrock, Norman Solomon, Jean Saint-Vil, Harvey Wasserman, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.

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A recently released documentary highlights the effects of the farming of Atlantic Salmon in the waters of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. The feature length film, which is freely available for viewing online, tracks the findings a number of scientific studies which have found evidence of european salmon diseases -- commonly found in farmed salmon -- in wild pacific salmon. These studies have presented evidence that links the transmission of these diseases, specifically the incredibly lethal disease ISA, from farmed salmon to wild salmon to previously unexplained declines in Canadian sockeye salmon runs.

ISA has long been a problem for salmon farming operations in the waters off Norway, Scotland, eastern Canada and Chile. The virus, by infecting the red blood cells, causes severe anemia in affected fish, often leading to death. Mortality rates in infected farming operations as high as 100% have been observed. Loss rates of 70% are not uncommon. There is no treatment for the disease once a fish is infected and vaccines designed to prevent infection are considered less than effective and difficult to administer.

The film also documents the purported cover-up of scientific results supporting this claim by the Canadian government. According to the film's web site, "when biologist Alexandra Morton discovers BC's wild salmon are testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide, a chain of events is set off by government to suppress the findings. Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms, into British Columbia's most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants. The film documents Morton's journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC's wild salmon."

You can view the film below, or view it directly on SalmonConfidential.ca.



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The Atlantic Salmon Federation stands by its allegation that taxpayers have paid the regional salmon farming industry more than $100 million in compensation for having to destroy diseased fish.

"We think it's an underestimate," association vice-president Sue Scott said Tuesday in an interview from Saint Andrews, N.B.

The federation has launched a media campaign, including full-page newspaper ads, which allege the federal government and the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have paid open-pen salmon farmers at least $100 million in compensation between 1996 and 2012 for having to destroy more than 10 million fish infected with infectious salmon anemia.

Scott said the federation, which sees open-pen salmon farms as a threat to the revival of regional wild salmon stocks and to the marine environment in general, had a difficult time compiling its compensation figures.

"It was very hard to get," she said, while suggesting that the compensation numbers aren't something governments want the public to know.

"We spent time going through (federal) government and provincial records," she said.

The federation said in 1996-1997 the aquaculture industry received $40.5 million in federal and New Brunswick government compensation following the first government-ordered kill of disease-infected salmon.

It said Ottawa and New Brunswick paid another $25 million to the salmon farming industry in 1999 under disaster financial assistance arrangements.

In 2006, the federation said the federal fisheries department, after two years of negotiations, contributed another $10 million to cover losses from the disease.

It estimated that governments paid $7 million in compensation to the salmon farming industry in 2007 and $26 million in 2012, when New Brunswick's Cooke Aquaculture was recompensed for infectious salmon anemia-related kills at its Nova Scotia operations.

Scott said government compensation for destroying diseased fish doesn't encourage good animal husbandry.

And she thought the recent Canadian Food Inspection Agency decision to allow salmon farmers to process and market infectious salmon anemia-infected salmon, which aren't considered a threat to human health, might be part of an effort to avoid paying compensation to the industry.

Scott said the federation's public awareness campaign has received a lot of feedback on Facebook and Twitter.

And while it hasn't all been supportive, she said no one, including government and farmed salmon officials, has questioned the federation's compensation numbers.

"We've never had any reaction from industry saying it's wrong," Scott said.

Pam Parker, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, said she didn't know where the federation got its numbers.

"I don't have that information," she said Tuesday.

Parker said government compensation for fish kills is similar to that given to beef and chicken farmers for animal culls.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada referred questions on the issue to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Agency spokeswoman Elena Koutsavakis said it had no information about compensation paid to fish farms prior to January 2011, when it became responsible for responding to federally reportable aquatic animal diseases.

"Prior to that, the responsibility rested with either the province or the private sector," she said.

Scott said the federation, which advocates land-based fish farms, was encouraged by the Nova Scotia government's decision to review fish farm regulations.

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The Atlantic Salmon Federation stands by its allegation that taxpayers have paid the regional salmon farming industry more than $100 million in compensation for having to destroy diseased fish.

"We think it's an underestimate," association vice-president Sue Scott said Tuesday in an interview from Saint Andrews, N.B.

The federation has launched a media campaign, including full-page newspaper ads, which allege the federal government and the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have paid open-pen salmon farmers at least $100 million in compensation between 1996 and 2012 for having to destroy more than 10 million fish infected with infectious salmon anemia.

Scott said the federation, which sees open-pen salmon farms as a threat to the revival of regional wild salmon stocks and to the marine environment in general, had a difficult time compiling its compensation figures.

"It was very hard to get," she said, while suggesting that the compensation numbers aren't something governments want the public to know.

"We spent time going through (federal) government and provincial records," she said.

The federation said in 1996-1997 the aquaculture industry received $40.5 million in federal and New Brunswick government compensation following the first government-ordered kill of disease-infected salmon.

It said Ottawa and New Brunswick paid another $25 million to the salmon farming industry in 1999 under disaster financial assistance arrangements.

In 2006, the federation said the federal fisheries department, after two years of negotiations, contributed another $10 million to cover losses from the disease.

It estimated that governments paid $7 million in compensation to the salmon farming industry in 2007 and $26 million in 2012, when New Brunswick's Cooke Aquaculture was recompensed for infectious salmon anemia-related kills at its Nova Scotia operations.

Scott said government compensation for destroying diseased fish doesn't encourage good animal husbandry.

And she thought the recent Canadian Food Inspection Agency decision to allow salmon farmers to process and market infectious salmon anemia-infected salmon, which aren't considered a threat to human health, might be part of an effort to avoid paying compensation to the industry.

Scott said the federation's public awareness campaign has received a lot of feedback on Facebook and Twitter.

And while it hasn't all been supportive, she said no one, including government and farmed salmon officials, has questioned the federation's compensation numbers.

"We've never had any reaction from industry saying it's wrong," Scott said.

Pam Parker, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, said she didn't know where the federation got its numbers.

"I don't have that information," she said Tuesday.

Parker said government compensation for fish kills is similar to that given to beef and chicken farmers for animal culls.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada referred questions on the issue to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Agency spokeswoman Elena Koutsavakis said it had no information about compensation paid to fish farms prior to January 2011, when it became responsible for responding to federally reportable aquatic animal diseases.

"Prior to that, the responsibility rested with either the province or the private sector," she said.

Scott said the federation, which advocates land-based fish farms, was encouraged by the Nova Scotia government's decision to review fish farm regulations.

Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV) is a virus belongs to genus Isavirus and family Orthomyxoviridae. Ms Aamelfot studied the interaction between salmon and ISAV; and provide new information on the development of ISA.

There was a good documentary posted on here awhile ago about this. You should look for it. I think it was slanted a little towards making the canadian government look like they weren't doing anything, which isn't the case. I looked into several research papers on how the canadian government is trying to figure this problem out. But they are trying to develop a sure fire testing method for the disease.

As was stated in the article posted, there are other factors that are playing into the decline of our salmon runs. But salmon anemia is a terrifying idea, especially since it is a pathogen that can be transfered through the water

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Scientists said there was no proof that a salmon-killing disease had made its way to the Pacific Northwest, but a researcher in Canada disagreed.