For the Record SFU
as reported by CBC, Nov. 21, 2011
...In an email to CBC News Fred Kibenge, the director of the lab at AVC, said the results given to the Routledge weren't conclusive. Kibenge said further testing needed to be done to confirm ISA was present.
He said his lab has no control over how a client uses test results once they've been released to them.
Salmon virus reports prompt federal review
CBC News, Posted: Nov 21, 2011
The federal government has launched an investigation after two labs got different results on whether infectious salmon anemia was present in two fish from British Columbia.
Last month Rick Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University, announced two salmon he had tested by Charlottetown's Atlantic Veterinary College had traces of infectious salmon anemia. News that the virus could be in B.C. caused serious concerns in the fish-farming industry. Opponents say the presence of ISA would suggest a link between fish farming and the decline in wild salmon.
But retesting of the samples at a Fisheries and Oceans Canada lab in Moncton couldn't confirm the presence of ISA.
The federal government is now reviewing the whole process, including the collection and handling of the samples in BC, and testing procedures at both labs.
"You have to determine whether or not that test has been properly validated," said Peter Wright, manager of the Fisheries and Oceans lab.
"This is what provides anybody with the confidence in test results."
In an email to CBC News Fred Kibenge, the director of the lab at AVC, said the results given to the Routledge weren't conclusive. Kibenge said further testing needed to be done to confirm ISA was present.
He said his lab has no control over how a client uses test results once they've been released to them.
Simon Fraser University did not find salmon virus
By Donald MacLachlan, SFU, The Daily News November 12, 2011
R; 'Shoddy science, not a salmon virus, the problem' (Your Letters, Nov. 10)
A letter you carried from Ian Roberts links Simon Fraser University with "shoddy science" regarding the reported discovery of the infectious salmon anemia virus in B.C. waters.
For the record, it was not SFU that made a positive finding of ISA in two wild salmon collected by SFU. The identification was made by the ISA reference laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College in PEI, and it was that agency that notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of the positive results.
According to Mr. Roberts, the CFIA has "confirmed" there is no ISA virus in the original fish tissues sent to the PEI lab by SFU.
What the CFIA said at a news conference this week was that no confirmed cases of ISA have been found, but supplementary testing "must be considered inconclusive because of the poor quality of the samples."
The CFIA added: "Additional testing will continue and the results will be provided when we are ready."
SFU fervently hopes that the eventual results will indeed be good news for B.C., for the many people whose livelihood is tied to wild salmon and to salmonfarming, and for the aquaculture industry.
Donald MacLachlan Director, Public Affairs and Media Relations Simon Fraser University
Reference Links
No Confirmed Cases of Infectious Salmon Anaemia in British Columbia : Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Nov. 9
