Salmon Virus in BC Sparks Fears in US

PARLIAMENT HILL—The coming weeks will reveal whether B.C. farmed salmon are infected with a virus that has three U.S. senators calling for a congressional investigation.

“The highly contagious marine influenza virus, Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), has for the first time been officially reported after being found in the Pacific on B.C.’s central coast,” announced a Simon Fraser University press release last week, sparking concerns that quickly jumped south of the border.

The virus doesn’t affect humans but is lethal to salmon and threatens wild and farmed stocks, warn the senators.

Two Democrats, Maria Cantwell and Mark Begich were joined by Republican Lisa Murkowski in calling for a congressional investigation of “the spread of the Canadian salmon virus that poses a threat to Pacific Northwest wild salmon and the coastal economies that rely on them,” said a statement.

“We need to act now to protect the Pacific Northwest’s coastal economy and jobs,” said Cantwell. “We have to get a coordinated game plan in place to protect our salmon and stop the spread of this deadly virus.”

Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield has cast doubts on the research that uncovered the disease, describing the findings as “far from conclusive” when questioned last week.

In a statement released Monday, Ashfield and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government is looking into the findings, but that proper protocols may not have been followed and additional testing is needed to verify the presence or absence of the virus.

“We want to assure Canadians and people around the world that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada are working diligently to get the facts about the reports of the presence of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) in British Columbian salmon,” said the statement.

Tests on over 500 wild and farmed B.C. salmon over two years have not revealed the pathogen, nor did a seven-year surveillance program that tested 4,700 fish between 2003 and 2010, said the government.

“In short, there has never been a confirmed case of ISA in British Columbia salmon—farmed or wild.”

A spokesperson for Ashfield said there was little else to talk about until those tests were complete. She could not comment on any impacts the disease could have on the market for B.C. salmon or the already troubled reputation of farmed fish.

Threat to Business

The BC Salmon Farmers Association is concerned about the virus and questions how it was transported to the west coast.

“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, a board member for the group.

Fin Donnelly, the NDP’s fisheries critic, described the appearance of the ISA virus as “extremely alarming.”

He said it likely came to Canada through eggs transported from Europe. The virus has already been seen in farmed fish on the east coast, costing farmers up to $5.5 million a year according to a 2010 report from the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University.

Donnelly said the disease reflects an ongoing problem with current aquaculture practices.

“After you look at other jurisdictions around the world, you see a pattern.”

That pattern is assurances from the fish farm industry followed by failures, he said. Promises there would be no escapes from fish farms were followed by escapes; promises there would be no parasites were followed by sea lice outbreaks. The same is true with promises there would be no diseases, he said.

“Now we have this apparent problem with diseases.”

But Hawthorn said Donnelly’s “firm views” are somewhat off-base, noting there were never promises of zero escapes and that the health of salmon stocks—wild and farmed—has always been a top priority.

“ISA has not been confirmed in B.C. This virus is prone to giving ‘false positive’ readings. For this reason confirmatory testing is underway by CFIA. We need to wait and see what this finds before we can comment rationally. We would like to see others adopt this same approach,” he said.

Donnelly thinks a fundamental solution to ongoing problems with farmed fish is to move from open net systems to closed systems. Rather than netted pens, fish would be farmed in closed containers that treat tank water before returning it to the ocean and offer better guarantees against escapes and disease migration.

Without some kind of change, he said the image of farmed fish will deteriorate.

“If something is [seen] as scary, people are not going to buy it.”

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is currently studying the feasibility of closed-container salmon aquaculture.