Chilean ISA Outbreak "under control"

CHILE’S ISA OUTBREAK IS UNDER CONTROL CHILE - Ninty Percent Of Infected Fish have now been exterminated wrtites Benjamin Witte, Santiago Times.

Chile’s National Fish Service (SERNAPESCA) confirmed this week that southern salmon farmers have killed off 90 percent of fish thought to carry Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a highly contagious virus recently detected on fish farms around Region X’s Chiloé Island.

Chiloé accounts for nearly 50 percent of the salmon produced by Chile’s US$2.2 billion farmed salmon industry.

The announcement came one week after SERNAPESCA implemented a contingency plan that called for the quarantine and slaughter of infected fish (PT, Aug. 8). It also comes on the heels of a report by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), which revealed that Chilean fish farmers have thus far killed more than one million fish. Another 220,000 fish have died as a result of the illness, said the OIE report, which was based on data provided by Chile’s Agriculture Ministry.

The ISA outbreak is centered around Chiloé’s Lemuy Island. Though it wasn’t officially acknowledged until late July (PT, July 31), the problem was, in fact, first detected in mid June, the OIE report said.

Four fish farms – three owned by Marine Harvest, the other owned by Aguas Claras/AquaChile – are known to have been directly affected. SERNAPESCA is keeping a watchful eye on 29 other farms located in the highly-concentrated salmon producing region.

ISA, not dissimilar to influenza, is a deadly virus that spreads easily and quickly. Symptoms include a paling of the salmon’s gills, swelling of the liver and spleen, and internal hemorrhaging.

According to Dr. Sandra Bravo, a marine biologist from the Chile’s Universidad Austral, the illness was first discovered in 1984 on fish farms in Norway, the world’s leading salmon producing country. In 1996 ISA was detected in Canada, where it devastated New Brunswick’s then-budding farmed salmon industry. Scotland, another important salmon producing country, has had problems with the disease as well.

Transmission of the disease is thought to be aided by Caligus, also known as sea lice. Caligus, a major problem in Chile’s salmon industry, are parasitic crustaceans that attach themselves to fish, creating lesions that render their hosts susceptible to various diseases, including ISA.

To continue reading this article please click here

Source: Santiago Times

© 5M Enterprises Ltd.
2000 - 2007
No part of this site may be
reproduced without permission

5M Enterprises Ltd., 4 Haywood House, Hydra Business Park, Nether Lane, Sheffield, S35 9ZX, England.

Co. Registration 3332321 - A Benchmark Holdings Ltd. Company