Cooke Aqua sees continued disease in Chile operations

Timothy Gillespie — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 18:33:21 +0000

Chile's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) has detected a new infectious salmon anemia (ISA) case at Cooke Aquaculture's Chilean operations.

The affected farm, Ballena 1, belongs to Cooke's subsidiary Salmones Cupquelan, which had reported another ISA case in late February, as well as outbreaks in 2013 and 2014.

Sernapesca detected the HPR 3 variant of the virus at the center located in the Aysen region last week.

Other centers in the region are not suspected of the virus presence, Sernapesca said.

Sernapesca has ordered inclreased official surveillance on the center Ballena 1, as well as on other farms from the area and has restricted movements in the area as a preventive measure.

Cooke has had several ISA outbreaks at a variety of their Chilean farms since purchasing them in the wake of the massive salmon kill-off in 2008, which virtually destroyed the farmed salmon industry in that country.

Cooke has also been forced to slaughter millions of salmon at their open pen industrial farms in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, some of which have been reported to have entered the consumer food chain..

EUROPEAN UNION CONCERNED

The EU regulators expressed concern in 2013 about the serial outbreaks of ISA and sea lice in Chilean farms, sending a team of inspectors to the country to verify Chilean claims that ISA control measures were in place. Chile exports of farmed salmon in 2013 amounted to 205,000 tonnes, with a value of $2.2 US billion. Exports to the EU and Russia figured prominently in those values. In 2013, Russia imported 63 700 tonnes of salmon and trout from Chile, a rise of 127% from the previous year.

But when several years later, in 2013, new outbreaks were produced in the Aysen region, major steps were noted to control the situation. The audit highlighted the comprehensive analysis performed by SERNAPESCA in the development of official investigations against suspected diseases.

ISA SALMON PROCESSED FOR SALE?
Cooke harvested hundreds of thousands of 5.5 kilo salmon from the site in the 2014 episode, with 600,000 fish, amounting to 30,000 tonnes of commercial product.

There is no record of how many of the ISA-infected salmon have been processed and distributed to consumer markets in the USA and Europe.

OTHER STORIES ABOUT THE PREVALENCE CHILEAN SALMON DISEASE ISSUES

South Coast Today - chile aquaculture

Cooke Aqua sees continued disease in Chile operations

Federal quarantine for Cooke aquaculture in Shelburne, Nova Scotia

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