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Published Date: 2012-08-07 08:52:45
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Infectious hematopoietic necrosis, salmon - Canada (03): (BC)
Archive Number: 20120807.1231558

INFECTIOUS HEMATOPOIETIC NECROSIS, SALMON - CANADA (03): (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
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Date: Fri 3 Aug 2012
Source: The Province, The Canadian Press report [edited]
http://www.theprovince.com/health/Sunshine+Coast+fish+farm+quarantined+over+fears+salmon+virus/7037669/story.html

A British Columbia-based salmon-farming company has voluntarily quarantined one of its facilities as officials investigate the apparent outbreak of a dangerous virus.

Greig Seafood says its farm on Culloden Point, in Jervis Inlet on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, has produced preliminary positive results for the infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) virus.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is doing more tests and final confirmation is expected over the weekend [4-5 Aug 2012].

A release from Greig says the virus is not a risk to humans, and wild fish in the Pacific have a natural immunity, but infectious hemorrhagic necrosis can be deadly to Atlantic salmon raised in the fish farms.

In May [2012], the virus was confirmed at one Vancouver Island fish farm operated by Mainstream Canada, and all the fish at its Tofino-area facility were destroyed.

Precautionary quarantines were also imposed on 2 other farms in May [2012], including a Greig Seafood operation on the Sunshine Coast, but final tests showed IHN had not infected those fish.

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[IHN virus is a rhabdovirus that causes acute, systemic disease in salmonid fish and also occurs in asymptomatic fish hosts. The virus is currently endemic throughout the Pacific Northwest of North America, with a contiguous range extending from Alaska to California and inland to Idaho. As the virus is native to that region, farmed salmon infected with IHNV does not represent a major concern for native wild populations. Because farmed salmon are kept at high densities, stress and high pathogen density may act in synergy predisposing the fish to develop clinical disease. Additionally, Atlantic salmon did not evolve in that ecosystem, for which the lack of coevolution might result in this species being more vulnerable.

A map of the affected area can be accessed at http://healthmap.org/r/30rq. - Mod.PMB]

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