A response to - Challenge issued to salmon farmers
Lillooet News, Dr. Gary Marty, May 2, 2012
In an Apr. 25 letter to the editor, Elena Edwards expressed concern about the “unknown effects on human health from consuming diseased salmon.”
I am the fish pathologist mentioned in Ms. Edwards’ letter. I can assure you that viruses commonly occur in all living things, including wild salmon, but no fish viruses are known to affect humans. It would be unethical for a medical professional to suggest otherwise.
Ms. Edwards also challenged the salmon farmers “to allow Dr. Alex Morton and Dr. Kristi Miller to work alongside…Dr. Gary Marty to test salmon from your farms and to finally confirm or deny the presence of the viruses…”
Actually, some salmon farmers are already working with DFO’s Dr. Miller. Creative Salmon wanted to learn the cause of jaundice syndrome affecting some of their farmed Chinook salmon. Their veterinarian sent samples to me for validated diagnostic testing and to Dr. Miller for experimental testing. Some of the fish had piscine reovirus (PRV), but none of the fish had heart disease. We are now working together to report our results.
Alexandra Morton (who is not a veterinarian) sent supermarket samples of BC farmed Atlantic salmon to veterinary microbiologist Dr. Fred Kibenge at UPEI. His test results included an important disclaimer: “the presence of PRV sequences in the tissue samples does not imply that the subject fish had HSMI [heart and skeletal muscle inflammation].”
Contrary to Dr. Kibenge’s disclaimer, Alexandra Morton reported to the public that the “lab also reports that we had piscine reovirus, heart and skeletal muscle inflammation…”, “it’s a nasty heart virus”, and the fish “had heart and skeletal inflammation virus…” (Apr. 21 speech at U. Vic.).
To avoid misinterpretation of test results, I do not recommend that anyone—including salmon farmers—provide samples from their pets or livestock to people that are not veterinarians.
Gary Marty,
BC Ministry of Agriculture,
Abbotsford, BC
