False virus report cost government dearly
Canada: Fisheries department scientists didn’t find the virus in over 5,000 samples, but suddenly the Simon Fraser University announced they did- courtesy of its honourary doctor Alexandra Morton.
Odd Grydeland, FishfarmingXpert, December 4, 2012
This week saw another award being handed over to the anti-salmon farming activist Morton- this time courtesy of the New Democratic provincial Party member for Vancouver Island North. While the NDP claims to be supportive of the working class, this latest move shows that they couldn’t care less about the 6,000 some jobs that are supported by the salmon farming industry in British Columbia. In a previous report to the legislature in Victoria, a NDP-dominated committee suggested another way of killing the same jobs- by a mandatory switch of the entire salmon farming industry to some form of yet-to-be-developed “closed containment” fish farming formula. And everyone vaguely familiar with the issue of salmon farming and the extreme segments of the environmental movement will know that Ms. Morton would like nothing more than to see the industry and its jobs permanently removed from coastal communities.
When “Dr” Morton and her Simon Fraser University supporter- professor Rick Routledge- went public in October last year with positive findings of the ISA virus from samples provided by Morton to a laboratory in eastern Canada, all hell naturally broke loose. “Dr” Morton assured the world that the virus (which they never found) was of a strain originating in Europe, and therefore must have come from eggs imported by the salmon farmers in the province. When these and subsequent samples were examined by government and international scientists, no virus were found, but no acknowledgement of this fact was ever produced by either Morton or Routledge- the former rather undertaking a tour of eastern Canada and continuing to raise the fear of ISA virus being detected in B.C. salmon.
This week also saw the reporting of the amount of government resources that were tied up in having to deal with the false claims that the virus indeed had been found, among those these excerpts from an article in today’s Vancouver Sun by Keven Drews;
Reports that a potentially lethal salmon virus had been found in the waters off British Columbia last year drew a fast, co-ordinated response from the federal government, tied up resources of three federal ministries for months, and even required the assistance of Canadian consular officials in the U.S., newly released documents indicate. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act detail the lengths the federal government went to try to confirm and then respond to an October 2011 announcement by a Simon Fraser University professor that infectious salmon anaemia had been found in two of 48 sockeye smolts collected from the Central Coast. Federal officials have repeatedly reported they haven't been able to confirm the presence in B.C. of the virus, which can't infect humans but poses a serious threat to farmed and wild salmon stocks because it can cause anemia, hemorrhaging and lead to death.
In November, news broke that a Prince Edward Island lab at the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) that deals with the virus had been audited by the World Organization for Animal Health after member countries became concerned the lab's work was not consistent with findings from other researchers. That lab also played a key role in the research that prompted the October 2011 announcement by Prof. Rick Routledge and salmon-farming critic Alexandra Morton. A draft summary of a Dec. 12, 2011 conference call between Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, shows officials inside one DFO branch were still dealing with questions about the virus almost two months after Routledge's announcement. "DFO Science noted they have been seized with this issue for the past two months, and speaking with media and other interested parties has consumed much of their time over this period," stated the document. "They posed the question about what more could they be doing."
Listed as participants in the conference call were seven officials from DFO, two from the CFIA, and at least four officials from Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives of Canadian consulates in Seattle, Anchorage, San Francisco and Los Angeles. News about the discovery of the virus broke Oct. 17, 2011, during a news conference held by Routledge and Morton. Routledge announced tests conducted at the AVC on the smolts identified the virus as coming from the same European strain that wiped out about 70 per cent of farmed-salmon stocks in Chile. Morton blamed open-net-pen salmon farms and called for the operations to be expunged.
By Oct. 21, the department was preparing a statement by Keith Ashfield, minister of fisheries and oceans, warning Canadians and people around the world from "jumping to conclusion" that the virus had been found in B.C. Stephen J. Stephen, director of biotechnology and aquatic animal health science branch, also wrote in an email that day that an official with the CFIA had been in contact with several countries, including the U.S., on the issue. At the beginning of December, the CFIA announced follow-up tests couldn't confirm the presence of the virus, and the government was moving ahead with a surveillance plan.
Tom Robbins, a spokesman with Fisheries and Oceans, said he doesn't think any costs have been attached to the federal government's response to the Oct. 17 announcement. While Routledge said he anticipated a response from DFO and the CFIA, he didn't think any other agencies would have been involved, especially consular officials. Routledge said he believes the federal government was working in the best interests of the salmon-farming industry. "It's very clear to me the role of promoting the industry was given precedence here," he said. "I would say that because they did not take the threat to wild salmon to heart, and the evidence that I have for that is that they did not go out and collect fresh samples." Not surprised by the response was Morton. "This is now an international incident that they've got going on here because what about the countries that are buying farmed salmon from British Columbia thinking that this is an ISA-free zone?" she said.
Meantime, the World Organisation for Animal Health, known as the OIE, announced earlier this week the conclusions of its audit on the AVC lab will be reported to its elected governing bodies and finally, to its World Assembly of Delegates, in May 2013. The organization has already stated publicly a "series of weaknesses in the system have a direct impact on the quality of diagnosis conducted by AVC.'' As a result, the college could lose its designation as an international reference laboratory focusing on the virus, but it won't find out until May.
