Salmon farm. (Photo: Grieg Seafood)

CFIA quarantines another salmon farm in BC

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has quarantined a salmon farm in British Columbia (BC) for the second time in less than two weeks over concerns about the presence of infectious haematopoietic necrosis (IHN) virus in fish.

Grieg Seafood announced this week that CFIA took this measure even though no tests have as of yet confirmed the presence of IHN at its Ahlstrom Point farm hosting about 310,000 coho, and after Grieg voluntarily isolated its farm when a routine test identified a "low-positive result" for the virus. This result means that a virus might be present.

"Really, it's about saying we're in this stage where we know this virus can affect farm-raised Atlantic salmon and we want to do everything right to make sure that we are not going to be spreading it from there," said Stewart Hawthorn, Grieg Seafood's managing director, The Canadian Press reports. "So the quarantine order is to prevent any risk of any spread from that location."

Also this week, Mainstream Canada announced that it had killed more than 560,000 young Atlantic salmon and emptied its Dixon Bay farm after tests confirmed the presence of the virus on 14 May. That’s when nearby Atlantic salmon farms began testing and forming a special outbreak management team.

The company is now focused on developing a plan for cleaning and disinfecting the farm site, as per the requirements of CFIA.

Mainstream is accusing anti-salmon farming activists of ignoring biosecurity measures and endangering salmon farms and their employees. Mainstream Canada workers and contractors who were disposing of fish were harassed by activists, some of them violated biosecurity protocols at the offload and disposal site.

"It is frustrating and concerning that anti-salmon farming activists choose to ignore biosecurity protocols," said Laurie Jensen, Communications and Corporate Sustainability Manager for Mainstream Canada. "By being careless about biosecurity they could end up spreading virus and disease themselves."

The activists - Anissa Reed, a co-founder of the Salmon are Sacred movement, and plus Alexandra Morton and Warren Rudd – said they were simply trying to observe the disposal of the salmon. Reed said she was videotaping a crew at work when a dispute occurred with a Mainstream employee, CTV reports.

CFIA pointed out that IHN exists in coastal waters and does not affect human health or food safety.

Hawthorn noted that the virus poses little risk to coho salmon because it occurs naturally in wild salmon, and coho are native to the province.

"They can carry this virus but not get sick from it," he clarified.

Grieg will learn this week whether the virus is actually present at the site, he added.

"We're being very responsible," he said. "We're saying, well, let's assume that this is an IHN positive and we do have a disease that's happening.' That's the worst case it can be."

Laurie Jensen, a Mainstream spokesperson, suspects the virus came from wild salmon.

Related article:

- IHN outbreak may be spreading

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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