No chill, just lousy science
Letter: Larry Fletcher, The Province, July 10, 2013
Re: Monday story, Reporting virus could be put on hold.
No, Rick Routledge of Simon Fraser University, the World Organization for Animal Health’s decision to remove the special reference status from the Atlantic Veterinary College does not create a “very chilly environment for people to investigate the presence of this virus in the Pacific Ocean.”
An internationally recognized agency’s audit found that there was none in your samples. That’s just science. If you want out of the chill, actually find some trace of virus.
Larry Fletcher, White Rock
Here is the article Fletcher responded to:
Reporting virus could be put on hold
Salmon: experts afraid that deadly fish disease won't be disclosed due to backlash
By Alison Auld, The Canadian Press July 8, 2013
Scientists fear there could be a reluctance to report a deadly fish virus after the first lab in Canada to say it had been detected in British Columbia salmon was stripped of a special reference status by an international agency.
Marine researchers say they were stunned to hear that the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, recently suspended the reference status for a research laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island.
Run by Fred Kibenge, who is considered one of the world's leading authorities on infectious salmon anemia, it was one of only two labs in the world recognized by the group for the testing of the virus. Kibenge's work came under scrutiny in 2011 after he said he had found evidence of the virulent disease in wild B.C. sockeye salmon, challenging the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's position that the virus is not present in the province. His findings led the inspection agency to conduct an audit and send their findings to the OIE, which did its own audit and announced last month that it was delisting Kibenge's lab in a move that some say could discourage reporting of infectious salmon anemia.
"This is creating a very chilly environment for people to investigate the presence of this virus in the Pacific Ocean," said Rick Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University who gave Kibenge the salmon samples that tested positive.
Routledge, who has studied juvenile sockeye salmon migrations for 10 years in B.C., said he wanted to understand why the population was declining and used Kibenge's lab to examine possible causes.
The findings caused the Cohen Commission, a federal inquiry looking into the decline of sockeye salmon in B.C., to extend its hearings so Kibenge and others could testify about the possible presence of the virus.
