New ISAV case in Nova Scotia salmon farm

[GLG]

[h=1]N.S. salmon farm quarantined after suspected virus[/h]
Federal authorities have quarantined a Nova Scotia salmon farm after a suspected case of a contagious virus was detected a week ago.
The suspected infection was detected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and happened at a farm owned by Cooke Aquaculture.
Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) is an incurable and destructive virus that affects both wild and farmed salmon. The company has destroyed two cages of fish.


Neither Cooke Aquaculture nor the government agencies investigating would say which of the company's Nova Scotian salmon farms is the suspected source of the virus.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is trying to confirm the initial tests that found the ISA.
"It's a concern for the salmon farmers because there's no treatment for it. So although it usually doesn't cause really catastrophic large-scale losses, you can get losses chronically over an extended period of time. Since there's no treatment, you need to detect it early, which hopefully it was in this case," said Roland Cusack, Nova Scotia's chief veterinarian for aquatic animal health.
Infected Salmon Anemia is not a danger to humans. It was last detected in Nova Scotia in 2003.
"We went ahead and placed a quarantine on the facility and began to take some investigative procedures," said Cornelius Kiley, director of national aquatic animal health for the CFIA.


[h=3]Considered 'suspect'[/h]"Indications are that ISA could be present. We are considering it a suspect and as such are moving now to the next level which is the official government of Canada laboratory to do further work see if we can confirm this finding or not," Kiley said.

In Shelburne Friday, the suspected presence of ISA fueled opponents of a massive expansion planed for the area by Cooke Aquaculture.


"This disease has happened all over the world where farms are heavily stocked, farms close together, and this is what the Nova Scotia government is proposing for our coastline," said Sindy Horncastle, a Shelburne resident.
Horncastle is a spokeswoman for a Mayday-Shelburne County — a coalition of residents and fishermen. She said the danger of the virus is pesticides could be used to control the outbreak, a risk to the lobster fishery.
The industry sees it as a sign of responsible behaviors by the company and regulators.
"As soon as regular monitoring picked on the fact there could potentially be a case of disease and they took immediate steps to make sure that there was no potential for the spread of the disease," said Bruce Hancock, executive director at the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia.
"We'll probably heighten surveillance with the industry, though I think we'll have to wait until this unfolds a little bit more, but right now things were done quite quickly and hopefully we've caught it early," Cusak said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it would be several weeks before the results of its tests will be known.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/02/17/ns-salmon-farm.html

Here we go again. This industry must put there feedlots on land.
Can't they see that even their best efforts are not good enough to stop this virus.
Get your heads out of the sand and do the right thing.
GLG

 

[Whole in the Water]

We need to keep pressing the DFO and politicians to get the lice farms out of the water and on land, because it is just a matter of time before ISAv is on the BC coast if we don't. That would be a disaster of epic proportions!!!

 

[GLG]

http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/wo...&special=&monthyear=&day=&id=50081&ndb=1&df=0

Salmon company kills thousands of fish due to ISA suspicion

CANADA
Monday, February 20, 2012, 23:40 (GMT + 9)
Cooke Aquaculture killed two cages’ worth of fish in Nova Scotia after routine testing on 10 February suggested the salmon had the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus. The company called this voluntary action “proactive fish health management.”

ISA is a naturally occurring virus that spreads slowly and appears in wild fish in many parts of the world, including eastern Canada and the US, Cooke noted. The virus is harmful to salmon and can kill up to 90 per cent of infected fish, but poses no risks to human health.

The fishing group Mayday-Shelburne County says the possible virus outbreak is a reminder about the significant risks of large-scale fish farming.

"This disease has happened all over the world where farms are heavily stocked, farms close together, and this is what the Nova Scotia government is proposing for our coastline," said Sindy Horncastle, who heads the group, UPI reports.

Although Cooke Aquaculture decided to eliminate thousands of fish at one of its fish farms, the presence of ISA was never confirmed in them and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is continuing its testing.

“While this is only a suspect case of ISA, Cooke has taken the extremely proactive fish health approach of euthanizing the affected fish immediately rather than waiting for further testing results by the CFIA, which could take several weeks,” the company elaborated.

The aquaculture firm did not specify at which one of its farms the event took place. Con Kiley, director of the agency's aquatic animal health programme, explained that this information is kept under wraps because of privacy concerns, The Canadian Press reports.

Todd Dupuis, an executive director with the Atlantic Salmon Federation, was not surprised to hear about the suspected outbreak because the virus has been found in Canada before.

He said the Federation’s main concern is that the virus will spread to wild salmon stocks.

“The stocks are very depressed already in that region in the Bay of Fundy and southern coast of Nova Scotia,” he said. “They've got to make sure it doesn't get passed to what's left of the wild stocks.”

The fish killed will not be sold for human consumption even though they are allegedly safe to eat. Instead, they have been disposed of in an approved manner in compliance with the Province of Nova Scotia and CFIA.


Change the dates and change the place and we could be in the news too
GLG