Relax, eh - sockeyefry..hmmmquote:Originally posted by sockeyefry
Charlie,
How does ISA ruin their "environment and fisheries" when it impacts only farmed Atlantic Salmon and no other fish species has been found to die from it. Carry it yes, but not succumb to it?
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From a farmers perspective ISAV is a bad virus, but not so much from a wild population stand point. No where has it caused any problems accept to the farmed fish, so relax Charlie, there are worse viruses that occur naturally in BC that will effect wild pacifics. And the farms had nothing to do with bringing them in or creating them from thin air.
The reality is that although we know that the mortality rate of ISA on farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is high and something like 80-90%, we really DO NOT</u> know what the effects would be if a population of onchorynchus spp. got infected.
As far as I am aware - all we know is that the mortality rate is high on Salmo, and are lower on the few Pacific salmon tested.
Firstly, do you know what the mortality rate is on Pacific salmon on a species-by-species basis? I don't, nor can I find where that was ever researched.
Secondly, the sublethal or population-level effects of ISA on wild, Pacific salmon have not be investigated - to my knowledge.
What are the effects of ISA on fry survival, egg production, etc?
Infected fish may exhibit any or all of the following signs of ISA; listlessness; protruding and/or haemorrhaged eyes; pale gills; swollen livers; swollen or enlarged spleens; petechial hemorrhages on the pyloric caecae; suppressed leukocyte response; a decrease in the capability of the liver to transform and excrete xenobiotics from the body; cardiac myopathy syndrome (CSM), and; internal bleeding. Any of these symptoms may not cause IMMEDIATE death, but could easily cause a decrease in population-level survival.
What happens if a group of ISA-infected Pacific salmon are attempting to spawn, with the associated high stress that they would experience? Would the disease "express" itself, then? Would other stream-dwelling salmonids be exposed and infected?
There is FAR TOO MANY UNKNOWNS TO BE COMPLACENT!!!