Salmon Confidential’s biggest fib
Salmon Confidential Exposed, April 16, 2013
The 20-35 minute segment of the film reinforces earlier messages designed to dupe people who aren’t familiar with technical scientific testing procedures. Which is pretty much everyone.
It also contains the biggest fib in the film. I’ll get to that in a second.
Most people have no idea what a PCR test is. Morton and co. are banking on this in their documentary to pull the wool over your eyes. The film tries to suggest that testing for viruses is simple: send in a piece of fish, look for viruses with a magic machine, and bam, you’ve got ISA.
The truth is much more complicated.
PCR tests are, in a nutshell, tests that look for a specific piece of DNA in a sample (RNA when the tests are looking for viruses). This short video provides an excellent explanation of how this works:
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2KoLnIwoZKU
The biggest fib in this documentary is where Morton and others claim that PCR tests showing “positive” results for ISA virus must mean the virus is present.
To make that claim, Morton has had to deliberately ignore the explanatory notes on all the lab reports she’s gotten back.
http://salmonconfidential.com/2013/04/16/salmon-confidentials-biggest-fib/
Also, to make this claim, Morton has had to deliberately ignore the OIE-approved procedure labs must follow before they can confirm a finding of ISA virus “positive.” Follow-up tests must be completed before anyone can say the virus is present. Claiming ISA virus was in B.C. before it’s confirmed, as Morton does, is like your doctor saying you have cancer based on one blood test.
But here’s the best part. In the film, Morton makes the following statement.
“This big yellow Chinook salmon, a white Harrison spring, that had ISA virus. This sockeye had the ISA virus. This coho had ISA virus.”
This is a BIG FAT LIE. There is no other way to say this.
These fish did not have the ISA virus, and the lab reports Morton received show it. She knows it.
Here is the first lab report for these fish, in which they tested positive for a segment of ISA virus.
Here is the second lab report for these same fish, in which follow-up tests were done to try and culture the virus to show it was present through a process called cytopathic effect (CPE).
This report shows that follow-up tests were NEGATIVE.
Click the graphic below to see the full-size comparison of these two lab reports:
PAA Note: view graph at:
http://salmonconfidential.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/labreports_compared.png
This second lab report, which shows these fish did not have ISA virus, is conveniently left out of the film, and yet Morton has the gall to claim that these fish were positive.
She is misrepresenting science to dupe her audience. She must be doing this deliberately, there is no other explanation for omitting the follow-up test results for fish she claims are “ISA positive.”
PAA Note: To Learn more, visit Salmon Confidentail Exposed at: http://salmonconfidential.com/ Fact-checking the claims made in the "Salmon Confidential" documentary,
