Rigorous testing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) over the past two weeks has confirmed additional cases of the deadly infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) at the McNutt's Island industrial salmon farm operated by Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon, according to a notice posted Tuesday on the CFIA web site. CFIA inspectors traveled to and from the McNutt's site several days last week.
The infection was first reported by CFIA on March 7, when they ordered the destruction of hundreds of thousands of salmon in two cages. Days before that, Cooke had unilaterally destroyed another entire cage of fish thought to be infected with ISA.
LETHAL VIRUS
CFIA continues to order the destruction and disposal of infected fish, according to the notice, which also states that ISA poses no risk to human health or food safety. The notice does not state the widely accepted principle that ISA is extremely lethal to salmon and that it can destroy up to 90% of any population infected. There have been large outbreaks in New Brunswick and Chile which have devastated the salmon farming industries there, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
When asked if the latest ISA announcement caused any concern for her, Marian Specter, spokesperson for Friends of Shelburne Harbour, told SCT, "I understand that ISA in farmed salmon can spread as rapidly and widely as Hoof and Mouth Disease spreads in cattle. Since we’re dealing with such a contagious disease, I am concerned about plans Cooke Aquaculture might have to stock any of the three recently approved 'amended' sites in Inner Shelburne Harbour – Sandy Point, Boston Rock, or Hartz Point."
MOTHER NATURE BATS LAST
Those sites were approved by Nova Scotia Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau in spite of being larger and packed closer together than the original five sites they replaced, according the Specter. "Mother Nature always does bat last, and she always bats a thousand", Specter added.
"Enough. We need to slow down this concerted drive by big business and government to fill our harbours and bays with industrial salmon feedlots. The McNutt’s Island infected site sits just about half-way between the approved Shelburne Inner Harbour sites and the proposed Jordan Bay sites."
Read the full article at South Coast Today.