Responding to concerns about spread of salmon virus
Gary Marty, Salmon Arm Observer, March 06, 2012
Recent letters about the infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) provided conflicting information about whether salmon in British Columbia are infected. Most recently (Observer letters, Feb. 29) Catherine Stewart mentioned “heavy criticism levied on the provincial government’s testing methodology at the federal Cohen Inquiry.”
What Ms. Stewart did not mention is that among several laboratories that have conducted tests for ISAV in B.C. salmon, the provincial government’s laboratory – the Animal Health Centre – is the only one that has a certified quality assurance program. I am the fish pathologist at the Animal Health Centre.
When the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reviewed our testing protocols and diagnostic results last year, they concluded that there was “no risk for ISAV.”
Ms. Stewart did not mention that after our in-house ISAV test was designed by a graduate student from Simon Fraser University, it was adapted and validated by two other technicians experienced in molecular diagnostics, and our microbiologist Dr. Sean Byrne confirmed that the test was designed to detect all known ISAV strains. As further validation of the reliability of our results, every sample we received for ISAV testing from Jan. 26, 2011, through Oct. 25, 2011, was also analyzed using at least two ISAV tests recommended, but not required, by the OIE. All results were negative – no virus.
From 2003 to 2011, the province tested more than 7,000 farmed and wild salmon for ISAV, and all results were negative.
This gives us a high degree of confidence that our salmon do not have known strains of ISAV.
Gary Marty
B.C. Ministry of Agriculture
Gary Marty responded to the following exchange of Letters to the Editor in the Salmon Arm Observer:
Make tests transparent
Catherine Stewart, Salmon Arm Observer, February 29, 2012
Marine Harvest’s Clare Backman (letters, Feb. 22) claims that “thousands” of tests of B.C. net-cage farmed salmon turned up no sign of the infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAv).
What he fails to mention is the heavy criticism levied on the provincial government’s testing methodology at the federal Cohen Inquiry.
The salmon farming industry repeatedly cites the results of ISAv tests conducted under the supervision of provincial veterinarian Dr. Gary Marty.
During testimony it emerged that Marty is using a test designed ‘in-house’ by a student, a test that does not meet the standard for ISA detection used by the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) nor of DFO’s own laboratory.
Under oath, Dr. Fred Kibenge of the OIE-certified Atlantic Veterinary College and an expert in ISAv, testified he was “not familiar” with the provincial lab’s testing methods.
Dr. Kristi Miller, head of Molecular Genetics at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station testified she “has problems with the province’s testing methods,” believes they are “flawed” and likely generating unreliable results. Miller added that she was concerned that the “thousands of tests” may not represent thousands of fish as suggested, but a “slurry” of mixed tissues.
If salmon farmers are so confident in the health of their fish, why did they first refuse to allow Miller to test their fish, then agree to testing when their refusal was publicly exposed at the Cohen Inquiry, then deny Miller access again once the issue was off the front page?
The testing of B.C.’s wild and farmed salmon for the ISAv virus must be pursued vigorously and transparently. As a first step, the salmon farming industry must allow credible, independent testing of their fish for ISAv.
Catherine Stewart
Living Oceans Society
More information needed on salmon farming
Clare Backman, Salmon Arm Observer, February 22, 2012
Letter writer John Henderson (Protect wild salmon from salmon farms, February 15, 2012) needs to read more than just blogs and hearsay to understand the biology of BC salmon.
While some observers seem certain that unexplained disease from salmon farms remains the sole reason for the low returns of 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon, the full weight of the evidence provided in four separate reports to the Cohen Inquiry failed to find any correlation between varying returns and salmon farming.
Later as a witness, Alexandra Morton tried to knit together selected pieces of industry and government fish health reports to suggest that all these qualified professionals had missed or ignored an outbreak of the ISA virus.
This interpretive cherry picking of data ignored the fact that the actual ISA virus and the disease that it causes were not found in any of the many routine tests done on farmed fish.
In fact, as the commissioned reports concluded, salmon farms have remarkably healthy fish and keep very good health records.
Further, Mr. Henderson should admit that while research shows Pacific salmon are unaffected by ISA, it is devastating only to farm-raised salmon. Fortunately, despite thousands of tests, the ISA virus has never been confirmed in wild or farmed salmon in BC.
Clare Backman, Sustainability Programs Director, Marine Harvest Canada, BC’s largest farmed salmon producer
Protect wild salmon from fish farms
John Henderson, Salmon Arm Observer, February 15, 2012
An open letter to MP Colin Mayes and MLA George Abbott:
It was exciting and reassuring to see the tremendous return of the Adams River salmon run in 2010 after the disastrous unexplained collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon run in 2009. I’m sure you were as pleased as I was to see so many sockeye salmon in the Adams River and to witness so many salmon returning to Herald Park and the Salmon River. It made me think that if our wild salmon fishery were protected and managed properly, it would not meet the same fate as the East Coast cod fishery which collapsed in 1992.
The Cohen Commission investigating the causes of the collapse of the 2009 Fraser River salmon run has heard credible evidence which shows that the 2009 salmon were infected with the deadly ISA virus when the smolts swam past infected fish farms on their migration route in 2006. The commission also heard that these fish farms had no fish in their pens when the 2010 salmon smolts swam past in 2007. This explains why we had the disastrous collapse in 2009 and “The Run of the Century” in 2010.
The DFO, the federal government and the fish farms withheld information, questioned reliable information from other scientists and threatened DFO employees who suggested fish farms might be the source of infection of wild salmon stocks.
I don’t understand why both the federal and provincial governments have been protecting fish farms owned mostly by Norwegian companies and have not been trying to protect our wild salmon stocks which belong to the people of B.C.
The Adams River salmon run is part of our heritage and I expect you to protect it. I expect you to do all you can to facilitate the gathering of scientific information about the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River salmon run. If the Cohen Commission finds that fish farms located on the migration routes of the Fraser River sockeye salmon are infecting the wild salmon, I expect you to make these fish farms move their operations.
John Henderson
