Confirmed: Virus From Escaped Farmed Salmon Found In BC Waters; Potentially Deadly To Wild Stocks

[hatrack]

5 May 2019 (Wild Fish Conservancy) – A peer-reviewed paper has been published in Virology Journal showing showing that the strain of Piscine Reovirus (PRV) found in escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound and British Columbia originates from Iceland, where the eggs that supply the net pens are sourced. The study is co-authored by a group of experts in the field of animal biology and virology, as well as two of WFC’s own: Executive Director Kurt Beardslee and Aquatic Ecologist Dr. Nick Gayeski.

The research confirms long held fears that the significant majority of Atlantic salmon that escaped from the Cypress Island net pen collapse were likely infected with this exotic virus. PRV is highly contagious and was recently shown to cause potentially lethal side effects in Pacific salmon. These finding indicate the need for the Washington Department of Wildlife to start regular testing of operating pens for the presence of this exotic virus.

ABSTRACT: Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) is an emergent virus in salmon aquaculture belonging to the family Reoviridae. PRV is associated with a growing list of pathological conditions including heart and skeletal inflammation (HSMI) of farmed Atlantic salmon. Despite widespread PRV infection in commercially farmed Atlantic salmon, information on PRV prevalence and on the genetic sequence variation of PRV in Atlantic salmon on the north Pacific Coast is limited.

EDIT

CONCLUSIONS: PRV prevalence was close to 100% in farmed Atlantic salmon that were caught in Washington State and British Columbia following a large containment failure at a farm in northern Puget Sound. The PRV strains present in the escaped Atlantic salmon were very similar to the PRV strain reported in farmed Atlantic salmon from the source hatchery in Iceland that was used to stock commercial aquaculture sites in Washington State. This study emphasizes the need to screen Atlantic salmon broodstock for PRV, particularly where used to supply eggs to the global Atlantic salmon farming industry thereby improving our understanding of PRV epidemiology.

EDIT

https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/05/study-confirms-fears-that-escaped-atlantic-salmon-infected-with-exotic-virus.html

[KT2000]

1. stop all of them

they were shabbily run to begin with and somehow convinced regulators they would not harm native salmon. That made no sense.
Farmed shrimp are just as bad. They are destroying the wetlands that protect the land from typhoons and killing off the natural inhabitants for polluted food products.
Assume all these producers take shortcuts.

[hatrack]

2. This is right up there with importing grass carp to clean catfish ponds

Good thing it never floods in Mississippi or Louisiana, huh? Otherwise we might have to worry about escaped fish getting into the . . . oh, wait.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[Triloon]

3. It is absurd to farm Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound anyway.

Never mind that it's impossible to keep the populations from mixing. Is there no pen space available on the Atlantic? It's as sick and absurd as capitalism gets.

[2naSalit]

4. +1

[JudyM]

6. Almighty dollar destroys planet. Film at 6.