alexandra morton

Application made to reopen Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser River salmon

Discovery of Salmon Heart Virus Threat to Fraser Sockeye

April 24, 2012 (Vancouver) Today, the Aquaculture Coalition, which includes Alexandra Morton represented by Gregory McDade, submitted an application to the Cohen Commission into the decline of the Fraser Sockeye seeking to reopen hearings and examine new and significant disease findings pursuant to Rule 65.

Farm salmon purchased during February 2012 in BC supermarkets tested positive for the newly discovered piscine reovirus (PRV). This virus has been identified as the cause of Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI). Piscine reovirus weakens the heart of salmon. The Aquaculture Coalition believes the impact of this heart disease has to be considered as a contributing factor to the decline of the Fraser sockeye.

The Cohen Commission heard testimony that up to 90% of the sockeye entering the Fraser River die as they attempt to reach their spawning grounds, swimming through strong rapids such as the famous Hells Gate.

First discovered in a Norwegian salmon farm in 1999, HSMI spread rapidly through Norway to infect over 400 farms today. The disease is described as spreading like “wildfire”.

The Atlantic farm salmon (44/45 samples) purchased (February 2012) by Morton from Vancouver and Victoria supermarkets tested positive for PRV. Loblaw confirmed these fish had been reared in BC waters. This suggests PRV is widespread in BC farm salmon. Most salmon farms in BC are on the Fraser sockeye migration routes.

In a televised interview (April 20, 2012) Dr. Gary Marty, the Provincial farm salmon veterinarian and Cohen Commission witness confirmed he found the virus in 75% of BC farm salmon he tested. Dr. Marty suggests the piscine reovirus is not a concern. However, a joint scientific publication by the Center for Infection and Immunity, Columbia University, New York and Norwegian government scientists state: “…it is urgent that measures be taken to control PRV not only because it threatens domestic salmon production but also due to the potential for transmission to wild salmon populations.” The evidence that PRV is common in farm salmon was missing from the disease reports provided to the Cohen Commission by Dr. Marty.

Although the provincial vet reports the virus in “sick fish,” spokesperson for the BC Salmon Farmer’s Association, Mary Ellen Walling claims they are not seeing any indication of the virus.

DFO spokesperson Frank Stanek assures us: “Government of Canada scientists have not confirmed the presence of this virus in Canadian fish, despite extensive monitoring and testing.” http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Government+officials+salmon+farmers+contradict+claims+disease+farmed+salmon/6462981/story.html#ixzz1sPPnrvg9

However, DFO scientist Dr. Kristy Miller testified at the Cohen Commission on early findings that the PRV virus was detected in Chinook farms in Clayoquot Sound, as well as, in Fraser sockeye.

HSMI is not a reportable disease so the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is not directly involved. The Atlantic Veterinary Lab sequenced the virus found in the supermarket samples (collected by Morton in February 2012) and reports it is 99% identical to piscine reovirus found in Norwegian farmed salmon.

“The obvious potential that piscine reovirus is killing Fraser sockeye by weakening their hearts, rendering them less capable of fighting their way through white water rapids like Hells Gate was never raised at the inquiry. Despite the Province of BC apparently knowing it was common in salmon farms,” said Alexandra Morton.

Morton observed, “The presence of this virus is significant evidence in puzzle of the Fraser salmon collapse because Cohen heard evidence that over 90% of Fraser sockeye die as they are swimming upstream, a weakened heart could be causing this. Justice Cohen can not complete his work if pieces of the puzzle are kept from him.”

Morton went on to say, “I sympathize with Justice Cohen, he has seen DFO spokespeople contradicting their own scientists – which is how we lost the North Atlantic cod. Justice Cohen is blindfolded by the lack of full disclosure. His report will not be complete without getting to the bottom of this, just like he did for the ISA virus.”

The Aquaculture Coalition submits that the Commission should receive new evidence regarding the epidemiology and impacts of PRV and HSMI in salmon populations on a global scale and should hear evidence regarding its presence in British Columbia.

In particular, the knowledge of Dr. Miller and Dr. Marty regarding the presence of PRV and HSMI in fish farms in British Columbia is relevant to the Commissioner’s inquiry and an opportunity to hear their evidence is warranted.

-30-

For more information or to schedule interviews contact Alexandra Morton 250-974-7086, Gregory McDade 604-988-5201

Copies of the Application re HSMI- April 2012 (00541434).pdf (486.6K) letter sent submitted by Gregory McDade on behalf of The Aquaculture Coalition Download Application re HSMI- April 2012 (00541434).pdf (486.6K)

For the Record

Our discovery of the salmon heart virus, piscine reovirus (PRV) which causes Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) has been reported on in the press. The quotes provided from the province, DFO and the industry are conflicting and hint at internal chaos and gears grinding.

Mary Ellen Walling-Director BC Salmon Farmers

"We are not seeing any indication of a virus with the impacts that she has described in the release" FIS

"In B.C., the government fish health lab assesses heart muscles routinely for indications of disease and has not found any consistency between these tissues and the presence of this virus." Times Colonist

Dr. Gary Marty - B.C. government fish health lab

"In 2010 the province found PRV was common in farmed Atlantic salmon, but infection was not related to disease"

"If the fish were infected with a deadly virus, they would not have survived to be harvested or sold" Times Colonist

A farm salmon with Piscine reovirus from Superstore weighed 1.6 kg gutted. Normal harvest-size is 4.6 - 6 kg, the sores are unidentified

DFO - Frank Stanek, media relations

"Government of Canada scientists have not confirmed the presence of this virus in Canadian fish, despite extensive monitoring and testing."

Government of Canada Scientist testimony Cohen Dec. 15, 2011 Page 113

Q. Did you find piscine reovirus

Dr. Miller. We did find fish positive for the piscine reovirus, which is thought to be causing HSMI.

Dr. Miller ... we see piscine reovirus in our wild migrating sockeye salmon.

______________________________________________________________________________________

How could the BC Salmon Farmers say they have not seen any indication of the impacts of this virus, when the provincial vet auditing their fish said it was "common"? In 2010, the virus had not been identified, the disease was known only by its "impact" on the fish. In his records made public by the Cohen Commission, there is 1 record of HSMI in Mainstream's fish in 2008 and in 2010 he repeatedly mentions a "distinctive lesion" in the hearts of farm salmon.

"Congestion and Hemorrhage in the stratum compactum of the heart (i.e., the peripheral layer of dense cardiac muscle) is a distinctive lesion that I started seeing in 2008 in clinical submissions both from Atlantic and Pacific salmon. I noted this change only once among samples examined from 2006-2008 as part of the BCV audit and Surveillance Program, but in 2009 I had several cases. Clinical cases included all Marine Harvest cases that ask had renal intratubular hemorrhage (i.e., those cases listed above)."

Walling and Marty's statements do not agree, she says they have not seen the impacts of HSMI, Marty reports the impact of HSMI on the hearts of Atlantic salmon belonging to Mainstream and Marine Harvest, which use fish from stock that were imported into BC as eggs. No one screened these eggs for piscine reovirus, because no one knew the virus existed until 2011.

The DFO spokesperson and the DFO scientist's statements also do not agree.

Here is what scientists from a World Health Organization-sponsored lab have to say:

The identity of a mysterious disease that’s raged through European salmon farms, wasting the hearts and muscles of infected fish, has been revealed.

Genome sleuthing shows the disease is caused by a previously unknown virus. The identification doesn’t suggest an obvious cure — for now, scientists have only a name and a genome — but it’s an important first step.

“It’s a new virus. And with this information now in hand, we can make vaccines,” said Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, a World Health Organization-sponsored disease detective lab.

Two years ago, Norweigan fisheries scientists approached Lipkin and asked for help in identifying the cause of Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation, or HSMI, the official name for a disease first identified in 1999 on a Norweigan salmon farm.

Infected fish are physically stunted, and their muscles are so weakened that they have trouble swimming or even pumping blood. The disease is often fatal, and the original outbreak has been followed by 417 others in Norway and the United Kingdom. Every year there’s more of the disease, and it’s now been seen in wild fish, suggesting that farm escapees are infecting already-dwindling wild stocks.

Lipkin’s team — which has also identified mystery viruses killing Great Apes in the Ivory Coast, and sea lions off the U.S. West Coast — combed through genetic material sampled from infection salmon pens, looking for DNA sequences resembling what’s seen in other viruses, and inferring from those what the HSMI-causing sequence should look like. Lipkin likened the process to solving a crossword puzzle. The researchers eventually arrived at the 10-gene virus they called piscine reovirus, or PRV. The virus was described July 9 in Public Library of Science One.

Related reoviruses have been found on poultry farms and cause muscle and heart disease in chickens. “Analogies between commercial poultry production and Atlantic salmon aquaculture may be informative,” wrote the researchers. “Both poultry production and aquaculture confine animals at high density in conditions that are conducive to transmission of infectious agents.”

Such findings may be useful as the Obama administration develops a national policy for regulating aquaculture.

“If the potential hosts are in close proximity, it goes through them like wildfire,” said Lipkin.

Image: A healthy salmon, above; a salmon with HSMI, below./T. Poppe.

It takes a moment to download

 

Sointula, BC (April 13, 2012) Test results report 44 out of 45 farm salmon purchased from the Superstore and T&T markets throughout Vancouver tested positive for a newly identified Norwegian virus. The piscine reovirus weakens the fish’s heart causing Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI). HSMI is considered a “major challenge” in Norway infecting over 400 farms since it’s symptoms first appeared in 1999. It has spread to the U.K.

Scientists only recently identified the virus causing this disease making diagnosis possible. Thus no screening was possible for the 30 million Atlantic salmon eggs that entered BC for fish farming prior to 2010. Detected for the first time in Chile last year, Sernapesca, the fisheries regulator, responded with “intensified preventative measures.” Reports of HSMI in Chile drove industry share values down.

The virus reportedly spreads easily to wild fish near the pens like “wildfire”. There is no information on how it affects wild Pacific salmon.

The Provincial farm salmon health audits released by the Cohen Commission did not report HSMI. The Cohen Commission Technical Report on Disease and Parasites did not consider HSMI impact on Fraser sockeye. Author, Dr. Michael Kent, testified if HSMI appears in BC it would come from the wild fish (Aug. 23, 2012). Dr. Miller, from the DFO Genomic Lab testified on Dec. 15 that she is detecting the virus in wild sockeye.

If these fish are not from BC, we have a breach in BC’s food security protocol. People preparing to cook these may wash them, sending the virus into the water system. If the fish were raised in BC, why didn’t anyone who testified at Cohen know about HSMI? There is something very wrong when four women with shopping carts can find this and the salmon flu virus in Atlantic salmon in BC but almost no one else seems to know anything about it. Are the industry and government really unaware of HSMI, or is no one concerned there about wild salmon? I don’t see how Cohen can ignore HSMI. Weakening the heart of a fish that has to travel 100s of km against the Fraser River seems a bad idea.

“This hurts,” says Anissa Reed, co-founder of the SalmonAreSacred.org, “even with everything I heard at Cohen, I was still hoping the industry, Christy Clark and Stephen Harper were being a little more careful with wild salmon. I want to know what DFO’s response is to this.”

We hope the Province of BC will report which lease these fish came from. BC grants the licenses of occupation for each farm and so is responsible for the fact that the farms are sited in BC’s wild salmon habitat. We need to know, so we can go there and have a look at how the wild salmon are doing with this disease. Someone has be testing the wild salmon and if that falls to us then we will do it. No research on the state of wild salmon is going to be valid without testing for the European viruses.

In the 1991, Pat Chamut, Director General DFO Pacific Region said: “Continued large-scale introductions from areas of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic disease agents of which the potential impact on both cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to the resource and economically devastating to its user groups” (Chamut former ADM, DFO, to Sarna, Director of Pacific Rim & Trade, Policy Division, International Directories, DFO, 1990). It would appear he was right, but we are still going to suffer the consequences. How did Atlantic salmon happen to BC?

Further testing is underway to determine where the fish were raised and the origins of the virus. The lab sequenced the virus in many samples and found it 99% identical to Norwegian strains of Piscine reovirus.

Alex and the 3 other women with shopping carts, Nicole MacKay, Anissa Reed, Sabra Woodworth

take action for wild salmon

Get the Facts! Join us on earth day in Victoria or for one of several scheduled talksDownload EarthWeekendTalks.jpg (2000.0K)

Download Briefing – three viruses.pdf (1697.2K)

If you want us to continue tracking the apocalypse of viruses you can donate at www.salmonaresacred.org this work has no grants supporting it, we are not a multinational corporation, I work for free because I am trying to protect a place that I love. This is unsustainable for me, but I see no other option.

Last week I received further test results from Dr. Kibenge's OIE reference lab

There are four milestones in detection of ISA virus (salmon flu) in salmon:
1- visual sign in the organs
2- PCR positive result
3- sequencing the virus
4- finding the live virus and culturing it.

Last week we reached level 3. The ISA virus genotype HPR5 from a female chum salmon that had spawned in the Vedder River was sequenced. Cultus Lake drains into the Vedder River. In 2002/3 DFO found 100% of the sockeye tested from Cultus Lake produced ISAv positive results. DFO did not believe their results and did no further testing - see blog below for further information on this. proDownload HPR5 sequence Vedder Chum.pdf (96.8K)

As well, five of the 29 Atlantic salmon heads purchased from supermarkets in Vancouver produced ISA virus positive PCR results. Of these Dr. Kibenge was able to further identify the ISA virus variant as HPR5 in one and HPR7b in another: Download Atlantic salmon heads HPR5 HPR7b.pdf (109.8K)

Both of these variations of the ISA virus have been known to kill salmon. HPR5 has been reported in Selji Norway (Devold et al. 1995) and HPR7b was the dominant mutation in the ISA virus that swept through Chile in 2007-2009 causing 2 $billion in damages. Godoy et al (2008) include a picture reporting jaundice as one of the clinical signs of the Chilean ISA outbreak.

Jaundice (yellow colouring) has become a concern in BC in wild salmon and is also reported in farmed chinook salmon in Clayoquot Sound where ISA virus was detected. Provincial vet Dr. Gary Marty reports jaundice in the farmed chinook is unrelated to the ISA virus reported in these farms (Cohen Exhibit 2078). The company that owns these chinook farms contracted DFO to help them learn why these yellow chinook are dying. There has been no visible response to cull these farm salmon in response to ISA virus detection as is practiced in every other country dealing with this.

The ISA virus findings I am reporting here do not prove these viruses came from Norway or Chile, the lab report indicates only that they carry the same mutation. They may or may not be related to the Norwegian or Chilean strains. A Pharmaq Newsletter has this to say about HPR7b, "When ISA reached Chile, the HPR7b strain was known, which was the cause of the worst outbreak in the industry's history... it is in the 'virulent' category and is one of the most infectious worldwide, characterized by being highly deadly and contagious." This is not a scientific journal, it is an industry newsletter. Gonzalez et al. (2011) call HPR7b Chile's "most virulent" strain. HPR7b has also been found in Scotland (gene bank Acc. No. AF283997) and HPR5 has been found in Chile (EU625667). Kibenge et al (2009) report HPR7b was ~80% of the ISA strain found in Chile during the outbreak, there were multiple strains.

These mutations have caused large mortalities in other places, and I don't know how we would know if there have been large losses of BC feedlot salmon or not because they, and their government handlers, are so secretive. As I did inventory on the salmon feedlots in the Broughton this weekend, I was surprised at the number of empty farms and that Cermaq has moved their brood site out of Cypress Harbour for the first time in over a decade.

I am posting these results because I believe the way forward is to end the era where disease in farm salmon has been a federal and provincial secret. I continue to hope that government will respond to protect wild salmon and herring. The exact source of these fish is unknown, though they were sold as fresh BC product. At the moment water used to clean these is running into the Fraser River Delta.

If you would like to send a letter to the provincial government and parties this link has been prepared by a supporter, Huguette Allen

Thank you to Eddie Gardner, Ivan Doumenc, Sabra Woodworth and Nicole MacKay for your volunteer help in getting these results and to Anissa Reed. Below is a backgrounder on ISA virus findings and testimony in British Columbia.

Salmon Flu – Infectious Salmon Anemia virus, ISAv

Infectious Salmon Anemia, ISA was first discovered in salmon feedlots in Norway in 1984. ISA virus was local to Norway, but the feedlot environment of salmon farms caused it to become dangerous to salmon.

Gradually it appeared almost everywhere Atlantic salmon are held in netpens. Nova Scotia has just diagnosed it and the farm salmon are being culled. In 2007, Chile lost $2 billion to an ISAv strain traced to a central Norway hatchery14. There is a non-lethal strain that can attach to Atlantic salmon eggs and move around the world undetected called HPR0. It is known to mutate into more deadly strains in the high density of salmon feedlots.

To date in BC there are 317 ISA virus positive PCR tests from three labs, including 2 DFO labs. While Canada and BC refuse to accept any of these results. However, Chile, which suffered $2 billion in losses to an ISA virus strain traced to Norway, now uses PCR tests in hopes to be able to react fast enough to control outbreaks. One of the labs providing positive results on salmon from BC is the lab that confirmed the highly virulent HPR7b ISA outbreak in Chile. DFO found ISA in 2004, but didn’t tell the public, didn’t submit the study to the Cohen Commission, and only after the information was leaked to Cohen they testified that these results were false. They never explained why they hid these tests.

Testimony under oath recorded by the Cohen Commission that ISA virus is not in BC:

Canada, the Province of BC and the salmon feedlot industry say no indication of ISA virus has ever been found in BC, even though DFO got 115 ISA virus-positive PCR test results.

Dr. MacWilliams - DFO, Fish Health Vet: There has been no indication of ISA or ISAV on this coast in B.C15

Dr. Kent - Oregon State, Cohen Commission: Thanks for clarifying that ISA has not been seen in BC16 (ex-director of DFO’s Pacific Biological Station)

Dr. Marty - Province of BC fish farm vet: And so that gives me a great deal of confidence that we don't have ISAV in British Columbia17.

Mr. Clare Backman Marine Harvest: The level of surveys done in the country of origin and then again, the quarantine and follow-up sampling here in British Columbia has been successful in preventing any exotic disease, including this particular one, ISAV18.

Peter McKenzie - Cermaq/Mainstream: we have over 5,000 tests for ISAV, all are negative, and that gives us an extremely high level of confidence that our industry is free from ISAV19

The ISA virus positive test results for BC and Alaska

Despite the government and industry stance that ISA virus has not been detected in British Columbia, there are now 8 lab reports from 3 different Canadian labs, two of which belong to DFO reporting ISA virus positive PCR tests in over 317 salmon in BC and Alaska. Most of these results have been completely ignored by government with no response to them at all and the ones they have acknowledged they simple call false positives or “negative”.

When two Rivers Inlet sockeye smolts tested positive for European strain ISA virus in October 201120, I felt compelled to keep looking for ISA virus in BC salmon to see how widespread it is. With a dedicated group of volunteers, we started in the lower Fraser River and got positive results there too. Justice Cohen felt the threat of ISAv was so significant he reopened his Inquiry into the decline of the Fraser sockeye. An additional consequence of the recent ISAv findings was that a 2004 paper, co-authored and previously suppressed by DFO, was released reporting 100% ISA-positive test results in the most endangered Fraser River sockeye stock in 2004 (see below). Additionally, Dr. Miller has also found very recent ISA virus-positive results seemingly wherever she has looked, in fish farms, sockeye, and other salmon. Most recently, my colleagues and I have found ISAv in Atlantic salmon purchased from supermarkets in Vancouver, including potentially the most virulent strain known. Canada and BC continue to deny these results have any validity. Here is the data on the BC positive ISAv results.

October 2011, 2 Rivers Inlet sockeye smolts were diagnosed with European strain ISA virus (ISAV seg 8 Probe, ISAV Seg 6 Probe 52 Cts) by the same North America reference lab for ISA virus that diagnosed Chile. DFO refuses to accept those tests. (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

November 2011, three Fraser River salmon (chinook, coho and sockeye) tested positive for European strain ISAv (ISAV seg 8 Probe, ISAV Seg 6, 52 Cts). (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results) No government response to these tests at all.

2004 Draft DFO paper reporting 115 ISAv positive results for (a) 100% of Cultus sockeye tested, (b) 55% of chinook salmon caught east of Vancouver Island, (c) 50% pink salmon Forrester I., (d) 15% of Dixon Entrance pink salmon, (e) 21% Estevan Pt. pinks, (f) 13% of west Vancouver chinook, (g) 27% inside East Alaska, (h) 50% of Atlantics. (Cohen exhibit 2045) Canada says these results are invalid, even though some were done by the lab that diagnosed Chile.Download Exh 2045 - 29. CCI001528.pdf (2183.9K)

November 14, 2011 Nell Gagne, DFO Moncton Lab positive in 3 replicates in salmon # 0157
unable to reproduce in subsequent 3 “experiments” Rivers Inlet sockeye (Cohen Exhibit 2043). This result omitted from statements by the Minister of Fisheries that all these tests were negative. (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

November 2011 17 25.5% farm chinook from Creative Seafoods, Clayoquot test positive (ISAV-P7, ISAV-P8, ISAV_2010) in the DFO Genomic Lab, Nanaimo, BC (Cohen Exhibit 2053) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results). No culling, no government response to this.

December 8, 2011 Miller reports ISAv in PCRs on 90 samples of Fraser sockeye collected in 1986 in 67% of Pitt River, 80% of Weaver, 67% of Seton, 63% of Seymour, 81% of Nadina, 50% of Stellako, 50% of Horsefly, 40% of Okanagan, 50% of Upper Horsefly (samples taken in 1986). This raises the possibility ISAv came in with the first shipments of Atlantics, or there is now an endemic strain introduced in the early 1900s, or that it originated here in addition to the European strain reported. (Cohen Exhibit 2054, Miller Lab DFO) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results) No government response to this.

December 15, 2011 Miller reports 82 ISAv positive PCR tests (ISAV-P7, ISAV-P8, ISAV_Snow) for 2007-2009 samples from Late Shuswap, Chilko, Sproat Lake, Early Summer Shuswap, Great Central Lake, Cultus, Driftwood Narrows, Lower Adams, Harrison, Scotch, Baker Lake, Pinchi Creek, Stellako, Pitt, Quesnel, Dolly Varden Creek , Early Stuart (Sinta), Nadina, Seymour. Miller reports potentially 2 new strains she calls ISA8_2010 and Snow8 (Cohen Exhibits 2060,1, 3 Miller Lab, DFO) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

March 12, 2012 5 Atlantic salmon from Vancouver supermarket test positive for ISAV and Vedder chum salmon (adult female spawner).

The ISA virus in the Vedder chum was sequenced.

Canada, British Columbia and the industry deny these ISAv positive results
Government does not accept any of these results and claims they cannot find the ISA virus in 5000 samples.

Dr. Simon Jones, DFO, referring to the study he co-authored reporting 115 ISAv positive results: And so as is the result of many things that we look at, we determined that that was a negative result and we carried on. (Cohen Commission testimony Dec. 19 pg. 73, line 36)Download Cohen Dec 19.pdf (543.3K)

Hon. D. McRae: The testing that was done in the past has shown there were no positive tests for ISA. For that reason, I am hopeful that we never have a case of ISA on the west coast of British Columbia… .Studies show that sockeye salmon would not get ISA, which is a good sign for that wild stock. (Draft Hansard March 27, 2012, Minister of Agriculture) I cannot find what study McRae is referring to, it would be more correct for him to say past testing found 115 positive ISAv cases.

Minster of Fisheries Keith Ashfield: We can now confirm that, preliminary analysis, using proper and internationally recognized procedures, has found that none of the samples has tested positive for ISA (Nov 10, 2011). “The National Reference Laboratory has completed all testing and analysis of all the samples under investigation and none have tested positive for ISA.22 (Dec 2, 2011) This refers to the 2 Rivers Inlet sockeye. When Minister Ashfield says “none tested positive” in his lab he is ignoring sample # 1057 as reported by Nell Gagne, DFO, Moncton (Cohen Exhibit 2043).

Canadian Food Inspection Agency: In recent years, the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia have tested over 5000 wild and farmed salmon in British Columbia for infectious salmon anaemia. None have ever tested positive23 (http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/news-releases/infectious-salmon-anaemia-testing/eng/1323652434990/1323652434991)

BC Salmon Farmers Association: Another year of healthy fish on BC salmon farms. There were no cases of exotic disease such as ISA (2010). (http://www.salmonfarmers.org/another-year-healthy-fish-bc-salmon-farms)
ISA virus presence– CFIA claim a serious threat to export trade of BC farm salmon

Government statements inform us that if ISA virus is recognized as present in BC, the industry’s largest markets could be closed to BC farm salmon. This raises the question: are countries buying BC farm salmon on the condition of it being ISA virus – free? And are the Canadian and BC governments covering up 317 ISAv positive test results to protect the salmon feedlot industry’s markets, in complete disregard of protecting wild salmon?

Hon. D. McRae: My memory of the time when ISA was first talked about from the lab in P.E.I [Oct 2011 sockeye smolts]… There were lawmakers and legislators in the United States — various states bordering British Columbia — and some legislators in Asia who at that time were speculating and pushing for closing our market share.
It just reminds me, as well, that you do not want to give a nation a reason to close the border to a B.C. product without having all the facts. Again, if we had followed the protocols accordingly, I think it would have been more appropriate in terms of making sure we did not threaten our international markets. (DRAFT HANSARD, March 27, 2012, Afternoon) No one knows what protocols he is referring to.

DR. KLOTINS: …So if, let’s say, we do find ISA in B.C. and all of a sudden markets are closed, our role [CFIA] is then to try to renegotiate or negotiate market access to those countries. Now what it will be is a matter of they'll let us know what the requirements are. We'll let them know what we can do and whether we can meet that market access. If we can't meet it, then there will be no trade basically.22

Response to ISA virus

The international response protocol to ISA virus detection in farm salmon is to cull the fish immediately. This is currently underway in Nova Scotia “ISA Keeps Spreading”. Chile, which suffered $2 billion in losses due to an ISA virus strain from Norway, drafted their response to ISA virus into law, Resolution 2638-08

1- Confirmed sites must empty the site within 15 days
2- A positive PCR confirms ISA, not culturing process used in Canada
3- Offloading, disposal and processing must use specified locations where containment levels are high
4- All broodstock is tested
5- ISA detection in lake-based smolt facilities - “the whole fish stock of that center shall be eliminated”
6- Movement of infected fish has to be via prescribed routes
7- Removal of nets must be in sealed containers

A Pharmaq newsletter (Aug 2011) reports a salmon farming company was fined CH $77 million ($37 million) for not fallowing the farm for a long enough time after an ISA outbreak. They also report a Chilean Member of Parliament requested a lawsuit against the Norwegian companies for compensation for the ISA epidemic. Mainstream, largely owned by the Norwegian government and operating in BC says:
"that it is not an option for us to pay any kind of compensation. We are big in Chile…” Lisa Bergan (Dagens Næringsliv newspaper)
Contrast Chile’s response with this very recent statement in BC Parliament by the Minister of Agriculture:
… depending on where the suspected case of ISA, or the hypothetical case of ISA, was found and its proximity to, perhaps, fish farms or wild salmon rivers, the course of action could be a huge range of actions, I guess, in this case. (Minister McRae March 27 Draft Hansard)

This does not sound at all prepared and does not convey understanding of the consequences of this virus. If the provincial government of British Columbia is going to lease the seafloor under the biggest wild salmon migration routes in the Canada to an industry known to be associated with a virus that can cause $2 billion in damages, there should at least be an awareness of the risks and some suggestion of planning for an outbreak.

Canada refuses to accept PCR tests as confirmation of the ISA virus (http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/back-fiche/2011/20111108-eng.htm) because the PCR is too sensitive and can lead to false positives. Canada demands the virus be cultured before it is recognized as ISA virus. However, Dr. Kibenge of the OIE reference lab, who diagnosed the Chilean outbreak reports:

I must add that in our experience in Chile it was not very easy to use cell culture as a diagnostic method. In fact, people tried earlier on and most of the cases were always negative. So the principal method in that outbreak was actually real time RT-PCR, it was the most reliable. We could not rely on cell culture. (Dr. Kibenge, Cohen Testimony Dec 15, pg 46, line 13)

Canada’s actions put salmon feedlot industry first, disregarding wild salmon

By not accepting PCR results because they are too sensitive, Canada makes it clear the farm salmon have higher priority than the wild salmon. A decade ago, on October 3, 2003 DFO’s Director General of Science recommended Atlantic salmon be allowed to enter BC from a North Atlantic hatchery that did not meet the Canadian Fish Health Protection Regulations (Cohen Exhibit 1683). That seminal recommendation also placed the industrial salmon producers’ needs above the health of wild salmon. The Canadian Fish Health regulations were designed to protect wild salmon from exotic viruses, such as the European strain of ISAv now being detected and denied by government.

Summary

The federal and provincial governments’ denial of 317 positive PCR tests for ISA virus is not credible. In Chile, results from at least the OIE lab would be accepted as ISA virus. Our government’s own words suggest that a confirmation of the ISA virus in BC would appear to be an insurmountable threat to the salmon feedlot industry. The presence of cancer-causing and/or salmon flu viruses in the farm fish product is not something the market can tolerate or acknowledge. As Minister McRae states, legislators in Asia and the US, the two largest markets for BC farm salmon, were talking about rejecting BC farm salmon if it is ISA virus contaminated.

No one knows what ISA virus will do in the North Pacific. What we do know is that like other flu viruses it mutates readily and has become extremely lethal to salmon in several countries. Miller’s lab found that salmon testing positive for ISA virus demonstrated classic cellular response associated with influenza (Cohen Exhibit 2052).

While the market value of farm salmon is critically low worldwide, BC farm salmon export to China rose from $249,000 in 2010 to more than $3.8 million in 201125 because China decided to reject farm salmon from Norway. BC salmon farms are 98% Norwegian-owned so the same companies that lost the Chinese market in Norway regained it in BC. The price of farm salmon is falling worldwide (Intrafish 2012, numerous articles) so these companies may not be able to survive if, as Minister McRae and Dr. Klotins suggest, the largest BC farm salmon customers do not want ISAv contaminated product.

The federal government is responsible for how salmon feedlots are run, but it’s the Province of BC that rents the industry the seafloor under the pens to anchor their pens. Because the Fraser sockeye migration route was never considered when salmon feedlots were originally sited in BC, (even though tiny salmon-bearing streams were), these inconsistent and reckless decisions have to be revoked. There is no evidence wild salmon will survive the ongoing exposure to high levels of these lethal viruses pouring out of salmon feedlots at a rate of up to 60 billion viral particles and hour (Cohen Exhibit 1529).

Is government being willfully blind to the obvious in order to protect farm salmon trade? The biological, legal and social ramifications are enormous.

If ISA virus is here and being ignored by regulators and if massive numbers of Fraser sockeye have been dying of Salmon Leukemia/Parvovirus from salmon farms for the past 20 years the biological, legal and social ramifications are enormous. It is difficult to understand why DFO and the CFIA never examined whether or not the Salmon Leukemia virus is a danger to wild salmon and humans.

The ISA virus documents brought to light by Cohen make a strong case that the federal and provincial governments are involved in a cover-up. If wild salmon, a beloved national icon, an economic driver in many sectors including tourism and fisheries employment, as well as a food resource, are going to survive, government needs to stop making the salmon feedlot industry our national priority.

Ultimately, we learned in the Cohen Commission that Canada had considered instructing the labs not to test for ISA virus:

Email from: Kim Klotins [CFIA] To: Cornelius Kiley [CFIA] I’m thinking we should also advise all laboratories in Canada to not test any more samples of wild finfish for ISAV from the Pacific Ocean (Canada and US). K Nov. 4, 2011 8:15 am (Cohen Exhibit 2104)

The attitude of the federal government clearly revealed in this internal email chain sent from the CFIA to 8 people within the CFIA. “Con” refers to Cornelius Kiley, Director of the National Aquatic Animal Health at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Concentrate on the headlines – that’s often all that people read or remember… Con

Con,
___________________________________________________________________________________

It is clear that we are turning the PR tide to our favour, - and this is because of the very successful performance of our spokes at the Tech Briefing yesterday, - you, Stephen, Peter and Paul were a terrific team indeed. Congratulations!

One battle is won, now we have to nail the surveillance piece, and we will win the war, also.

Cheers Joe

This email then goes on to list numerous media pieces that reported no sign of ISAv including the Times Colonist, New York Times, Seattle Times, Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Red Deer Advocate etc. (Cohen Exhibit 2110)

In conclusion, I am grateful to Justice Cohen for bringing to light the ISA viral threats wild salmon are facing; without this Commission most of this material would have remained hidden. Now we at least have a chance to recognize what is going on and instruct government on the next steps. This remains a work in progress.

Lecture on the salmon viruses government says are not here

It takes a moment to download

 

New Norwegian virus in supermarket farm salmon

Sointula, BC (April 13, 2012) Test results report 44 out of 45 farm salmon purchased from the Superstore and T&T markets throughout Vancouver tested positive for a newly identified Norwegian virus. The piscine reovirus weakens the fish’s heart causing Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI). HSMI is considered a “major challenge” in Norway infecting over 400 farms since it’s symptoms first appeared in 1999. It has spread to the U.K.

Scientists only recently identified the virus causing this disease making diagnosis possible. Thus no screening was possible for the 30 million Atlantic salmon eggs that entered BC for fish farming prior to 2010. Detected for the first time in Chile last year, Sernapesca, the fisheries regulator, responded with “intensified preventative measures.” Reports of HSMI in Chile drove industry share values down.

The virus reportedly spreads easily to wild fish near the pens like “wildfire”. There is no information on how it affects wild Pacific salmon.

The Provincial farm salmon health audits released by the Cohen Commission did not report HSMI. The Cohen Commission Technical Report on Disease and Parasites did not consider HSMI impact on Fraser sockeye. Author, Dr. Michael Kent, testified if HSMI appears in BC it would come from the wild fish (Aug. 23, 2012). Dr. Miller, from the DFO Genomic Lab testified on Dec. 15 that she is detecting the virus in wild sockeye.

If these fish are not from BC, we have a breach in BC’s food security protocol. People preparing to cook these may wash them, sending the virus into the water system. If the fish were raised in BC, why didn’t anyone who testified at Cohen know about HSMI? There is something very wrong when four women with shopping carts can find this and the salmon flu virus in Atlantic salmon in BC but almost no one else seems to know anything about it. Are the industry and government really unaware of HSMI, or is no one concerned there about wild salmon? I don’t see how Cohen can ignore HSMI. Weakening the heart of a fish that has to travel 100s of km against the Fraser River seems a bad idea.

“This hurts,” says Anissa Reed, co-founder of the SalmonAreSacred.org, “even with everything I heard at Cohen, I was still hoping the industry, Christy Clark and Stephen Harper were being a little more careful with wild salmon. I want to know what DFO’s response is to this.”

We hope the Province of BC will report which lease these fish came from. BC grants the licenses of occupation for each farm and so is responsible for the fact that the farms are sited in BC’s wild salmon habitat. We need to know, so we can go there and have a look at how the wild salmon are doing with this disease. Someone has be testing the wild salmon and if that falls to us then we will do it. No research on the state of wild salmon is going to be valid without testing for the European viruses.

In the 1991, Pat Chamut, Director General DFO Pacific Region said: “Continued large-scale introductions from areas of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic disease agents of which the potential impact on both cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to the resource and economically devastating to its user groups” (Chamut former ADM, DFO, to Sarna, Director of Pacific Rim & Trade, Policy Division, International Directories, DFO, 1990). It would appear he was right, but we are still going to suffer the consequences. How did Atlantic salmon happen to BC?

Further testing is underway to determine where the fish were raised and the origins of the virus. The lab sequenced the virus in many samples and found it 99% identical to Norwegian strains of Piscine reovirus.

Alex and the 3 other women with shopping carts, Nicole MacKay, Anissa Reed, Sabra Woodworth

take action for wild salmon

Get the Facts! Join us on earth day in Victoria or for one of several scheduled talksDownload EarthWeekendTalks.jpg (2000.0K)

Download Briefing on Three Viruses

Download Briefing – three viruses.pdf (1697.2K)

If you want us to continue tracking the apocalypse of viruses you can donate at www.salmonaresacred.org this work has no grants supporting it, we are not a multinational corporation, I work for free because I am trying to protect a place that I love. This is unsustainable for me, but I see no other option.

More ISA virus test results

Last week I received further test results from Dr. Kibenge's OIE reference lab

There are four milestones in detection of ISA virus (salmon flu) in salmon:
1- visual sign in the organs
2- PCR positive result
3- sequencing the virus
4- finding the live virus and culturing it.

Last week we reached level 3. The ISA virus genotype HPR5 from a female chum salmon that had spawned in the Vedder River was sequenced. Cultus Lake drains into the Vedder River. In 2002/3 DFO found 100% of the sockeye tested from Cultus Lake produced ISAv positive results. DFO did not believe their results and did no further testing - see blog below for further information on this. proDownload HPR5 sequence Vedder Chum.pdf (96.8K)

As well, five of the 29 Atlantic salmon heads purchased from supermarkets in Vancouver produced ISA virus positive PCR results. Of these Dr. Kibenge was able to further identify the ISA virus variant as HPR5 in one and HPR7b in another: Download Atlantic salmon heads HPR5 HPR7b.pdf (109.8K)

Both of these variations of the ISA virus have been known to kill salmon. HPR5 has been reported in Selji Norway (Devold et al. 1995) and HPR7b was the dominant mutation in the ISA virus that swept through Chile in 2007-2009 causing 2 $billion in damages. Godoy et al (2008) include a picture reporting jaundice as one of the clinical signs of the Chilean ISA outbreak.

Jaundice (yellow colouring) has become a concern in BC in wild salmon and is also reported in farmed chinook salmon in Clayoquot Sound where ISA virus was detected. Provincial vet Dr. Gary Marty reports jaundice in the farmed chinook is unrelated to the ISA virus reported in these farms (Cohen Exhibit 2078). The company that owns these chinook farms contracted DFO to help them learn why these yellow chinook are dying. There has been no visible response to cull these farm salmon in response to ISA virus detection as is practiced in every other country dealing with this.

The ISA virus findings I am reporting here do not prove these viruses came from Norway or Chile, the lab report indicates only that they carry the same mutation. They may or may not be related to the Norwegian or Chilean strains. A Pharmaq Newsletter has this to say about HPR7b, "When ISA reached Chile, the HPR7b strain was known, which was the cause of the worst outbreak in the industry's history... it is in the 'virulent' category and is one of the most infectious worldwide, characterized by being highly deadly and contagious." This is not a scientific journal, it is an industry newsletter. Gonzalez et al. (2011) call HPR7b Chile's "most virulent" strain. HPR7b has also been found in Scotland (gene bank Acc. No. AF283997) and HPR5 has been found in Chile (EU625667). Kibenge et al (2009) report HPR7b was ~80% of the ISA strain found in Chile during the outbreak, there were multiple strains.

These mutations have caused large mortalities in other places, and I don't know how we would know if there have been large losses of BC feedlot salmon or not because they, and their government handlers, are so secretive. As I did inventory on the salmon feedlots in the Broughton this weekend, I was surprised at the number of empty farms and that Cermaq has moved their brood site out of Cypress Harbour for the first time in over a decade.

I am posting these results because I believe the way forward is to end the era where disease in farm salmon has been a federal and provincial secret. I continue to hope that government will respond to protect wild salmon and herring. The exact source of these fish is unknown, though they were sold as fresh BC product. At the moment water used to clean these is running into the Fraser River Delta.

If you would like to send a letter to the provincial government and parties this link has been prepared by a supporter, Huguette Allen

Thank you to Eddie Gardner, Ivan Doumenc, Sabra Woodworth and Nicole MacKay for your volunteer help in getting these results and to Anissa Reed. Below is a backgrounder on ISA virus findings and testimony in British Columbia.

BACKGROUNDER ISA virus results/testimony in BC

Salmon Flu – Infectious Salmon Anemia virus, ISAv

Infectious Salmon Anemia, ISA was first discovered in salmon feedlots in Norway in 1984. ISA virus was local to Norway, but the feedlot environment of salmon farms caused it to become dangerous to salmon.

Gradually it appeared almost everywhere Atlantic salmon are held in netpens. Nova Scotia has just diagnosed it and the farm salmon are being culled. In 2007, Chile lost $2 billion to an ISAv strain traced to a central Norway hatchery14. There is a non-lethal strain that can attach to Atlantic salmon eggs and move around the world undetected called HPR0. It is known to mutate into more deadly strains in the high density of salmon feedlots.

To date in BC there are 317 ISA virus positive PCR tests from three labs, including 2 DFO labs. While Canada and BC refuse to accept any of these results. However, Chile, which suffered $2 billion in losses to an ISA virus strain traced to Norway, now uses PCR tests in hopes to be able to react fast enough to control outbreaks. One of the labs providing positive results on salmon from BC is the lab that confirmed the highly virulent HPR7b ISA outbreak in Chile. DFO found ISA in 2004, but didn’t tell the public, didn’t submit the study to the Cohen Commission, and only after the information was leaked to Cohen they testified that these results were false. They never explained why they hid these tests.

Testimony under oath recorded by the Cohen Commission that ISA virus is not in BC:

Canada, the Province of BC and the salmon feedlot industry say no indication of ISA virus has ever been found in BC, even though DFO got 115 ISA virus-positive PCR test results.

Dr. MacWilliams - DFO, Fish Health Vet: There has been no indication of ISA or ISAV on this coast in B.C15

Dr. Kent - Oregon State, Cohen Commission: Thanks for clarifying that ISA has not been seen in BC16 (ex-director of DFO’s Pacific Biological Station)

Dr. Marty - Province of BC fish farm vet: And so that gives me a great deal of confidence that we don't have ISAV in British Columbia17.

Mr. Clare Backman Marine Harvest: The level of surveys done in the country of origin and then again, the quarantine and follow-up sampling here in British Columbia has been successful in preventing any exotic disease, including this particular one, ISAV18.

Peter McKenzie - Cermaq/Mainstream: we have over 5,000 tests for ISAV, all are negative, and that gives us an extremely high level of confidence that our industry is free from ISAV19

The ISA virus positive test results for BC and Alaska

Despite the government and industry stance that ISA virus has not been detected in British Columbia, there are now 8 lab reports from 3 different Canadian labs, two of which belong to DFO reporting ISA virus positive PCR tests in over 317 salmon in BC and Alaska. Most of these results have been completely ignored by government with no response to them at all and the ones they have acknowledged they simple call false positives or “negative”.

When two Rivers Inlet sockeye smolts tested positive for European strain ISA virus in October 201120, I felt compelled to keep looking for ISA virus in BC salmon to see how widespread it is. With a dedicated group of volunteers, we started in the lower Fraser River and got positive results there too. Justice Cohen felt the threat of ISAv was so significant he reopened his Inquiry into the decline of the Fraser sockeye. An additional consequence of the recent ISAv findings was that a 2004 paper, co-authored and previously suppressed by DFO, was released reporting 100% ISA-positive test results in the most endangered Fraser River sockeye stock in 2004 (see below). Additionally, Dr. Miller has also found very recent ISA virus-positive results seemingly wherever she has looked, in fish farms, sockeye, and other salmon. Most recently, my colleagues and I have found ISAv in Atlantic salmon purchased from supermarkets in Vancouver, including potentially the most virulent strain known. Canada and BC continue to deny these results have any validity. Here is the data on the BC positive ISAv results.

October 2011, 2 Rivers Inlet sockeye smolts were diagnosed with European strain ISA virus (ISAV seg 8 Probe, ISAV Seg 6 Probe 52 Cts) by the same North America reference lab for ISA virus that diagnosed Chile. DFO refuses to accept those tests. (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

November 2011, three Fraser River salmon (chinook, coho and sockeye) tested positive for European strain ISAv (ISAV seg 8 Probe, ISAV Seg 6, 52 Cts). (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results) No government response to these tests at all.

2004 Draft DFO paper reporting 115 ISAv positive results for (a) 100% of Cultus sockeye tested, (b) 55% of chinook salmon caught east of Vancouver Island, (c) 50% pink salmon Forrester I., (d) 15% of Dixon Entrance pink salmon, (e) 21% Estevan Pt. pinks, (f) 13% of west Vancouver chinook, (g) 27% inside East Alaska, (h) 50% of Atlantics. (Cohen exhibit 2045) Canada says these results are invalid, even though some were done by the lab that diagnosed Chile.Download Exh 2045 - 29. CCI001528.pdf (2183.9K)

November 14, 2011 Nell Gagne, DFO Moncton Lab positive in 3 replicates in salmon # 0157
unable to reproduce in subsequent 3 “experiments” Rivers Inlet sockeye (Cohen Exhibit 2043). This result omitted from statements by the Minister of Fisheries that all these tests were negative. (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

November 2011 17 25.5% farm chinook from Creative Seafoods, Clayoquot test positive (ISAV-P7, ISAV-P8, ISAV_2010) in the DFO Genomic Lab, Nanaimo, BC (Cohen Exhibit 2053) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results). No culling, no government response to this.

December 8, 2011 Miller reports ISAv in PCRs on 90 samples of Fraser sockeye collected in 1986 in 67% of Pitt River, 80% of Weaver, 67% of Seton, 63% of Seymour, 81% of Nadina, 50% of Stellako, 50% of Horsefly, 40% of Okanagan, 50% of Upper Horsefly (samples taken in 1986). This raises the possibility ISAv came in with the first shipments of Atlantics, or there is now an endemic strain introduced in the early 1900s, or that it originated here in addition to the European strain reported. (Cohen Exhibit 2054, Miller Lab DFO) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results) No government response to this.

December 15, 2011 Miller reports 82 ISAv positive PCR tests (ISAV-P7, ISAV-P8, ISAV_Snow) for 2007-2009 samples from Late Shuswap, Chilko, Sproat Lake, Early Summer Shuswap, Great Central Lake, Cultus, Driftwood Narrows, Lower Adams, Harrison, Scotch, Baker Lake, Pinchi Creek, Stellako, Pitt, Quesnel, Dolly Varden Creek , Early Stuart (Sinta), Nadina, Seymour. Miller reports potentially 2 new strains she calls ISA8_2010 and Snow8 (Cohen Exhibits 2060,1, 3 Miller Lab, DFO) (http://deptwildsalmon.org/results)

March 12, 2012 5 Atlantic salmon from Vancouver supermarket test positive for ISAV and Vedder chum salmon (adult female spawner).

The ISA virus in the Vedder chum was sequenced.

Canada, British Columbia and the industry deny these ISAv positive results
Government does not accept any of these results and claims they cannot find the ISA virus in 5000 samples.

Dr. Simon Jones, DFO, referring to the study he co-authored reporting 115 ISAv positive results: And so as is the result of many things that we look at, we determined that that was a negative result and we carried on. (Cohen Commission testimony Dec. 19 pg. 73, line 36)Download Cohen Dec 19.pdf (543.3K)

Hon. D. McRae: The testing that was done in the past has shown there were no positive tests for ISA. For that reason, I am hopeful that we never have a case of ISA on the west coast of British Columbia… .Studies show that sockeye salmon would not get ISA, which is a good sign for that wild stock. (Draft Hansard March 27, 2012, Minister of Agriculture) I cannot find what study McRae is referring to, it would be more correct for him to say past testing found 115 positive ISAv cases.

Minster of Fisheries Keith Ashfield: We can now confirm that, preliminary analysis, using proper and internationally recognized procedures, has found that none of the samples has tested positive for ISA (Nov 10, 2011). “The National Reference Laboratory has completed all testing and analysis of all the samples under investigation and none have tested positive for ISA.22 (Dec 2, 2011) This refers to the 2 Rivers Inlet sockeye. When Minister Ashfield says “none tested positive” in his lab he is ignoring sample # 1057 as reported by Nell Gagne, DFO, Moncton (Cohen Exhibit 2043).

Canadian Food Inspection Agency: In recent years, the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia have tested over 5000 wild and farmed salmon in British Columbia for infectious salmon anaemia. None have ever tested positive23 (http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/news-releases/infectious-salmon-anaemia-testing/eng/1323652434990/1323652434991)

BC Salmon Farmers Association: Another year of healthy fish on BC salmon farms. There were no cases of exotic disease such as ISA (2010). (http://www.salmonfarmers.org/another-year-healthy-fish-bc-salmon-farms)
ISA virus presence– CFIA claim a serious threat to export trade of BC farm salmon

Government statements inform us that if ISA virus is recognized as present in BC, the industry’s largest markets could be closed to BC farm salmon. This raises the question: are countries buying BC farm salmon on the condition of it being ISA virus – free? And are the Canadian and BC governments covering up 317 ISAv positive test results to protect the salmon feedlot industry’s markets, in complete disregard of protecting wild salmon?

Hon. D. McRae: My memory of the time when ISA was first talked about from the lab in P.E.I [Oct 2011 sockeye smolts]… There were lawmakers and legislators in the United States — various states bordering British Columbia — and some legislators in Asia who at that time were speculating and pushing for closing our market share.
It just reminds me, as well, that you do not want to give a nation a reason to close the border to a B.C. product without having all the facts. Again, if we had followed the protocols accordingly, I think it would have been more appropriate in terms of making sure we did not threaten our international markets. (DRAFT HANSARD, March 27, 2012, Afternoon) No one knows what protocols he is referring to.

DR. KLOTINS: …So if, let’s say, we do find ISA in B.C. and all of a sudden markets are closed, our role [CFIA] is then to try to renegotiate or negotiate market access to those countries. Now what it will be is a matter of they'll let us know what the requirements are. We'll let them know what we can do and whether we can meet that market access. If we can't meet it, then there will be no trade basically.22

Response to ISA virus

The international response protocol to ISA virus detection in farm salmon is to cull the fish immediately. This is currently underway in Nova Scotia “ISA Keeps Spreading”. Chile, which suffered $2 billion in losses due to an ISA virus strain from Norway, drafted their response to ISA virus into law, Resolution 2638-08

1- Confirmed sites must empty the site within 15 days
2- A positive PCR confirms ISA, not culturing process used in Canada
3- Offloading, disposal and processing must use specified locations where containment levels are high
4- All broodstock is tested
5- ISA detection in lake-based smolt facilities - “the whole fish stock of that center shall be eliminated”
6- Movement of infected fish has to be via prescribed routes
7- Removal of nets must be in sealed containers

A Pharmaq newsletter (Aug 2011) reports a salmon farming company was fined CH $77 million ($37 million) for not fallowing the farm for a long enough time after an ISA outbreak. They also report a Chilean Member of Parliament requested a lawsuit against the Norwegian companies for compensation for the ISA epidemic. Mainstream, largely owned by the Norwegian government and operating in BC says:
"that it is not an option for us to pay any kind of compensation. We are big in Chile…” Lisa Bergan (Dagens Næringsliv newspaper)
Contrast Chile’s response with this very recent statement in BC Parliament by the Minister of Agriculture:
… depending on where the suspected case of ISA, or the hypothetical case of ISA, was found and its proximity to, perhaps, fish farms or wild salmon rivers, the course of action could be a huge range of actions, I guess, in this case. (Minister McRae March 27 Draft Hansard)

This does not sound at all prepared and does not convey understanding of the consequences of this virus. If the provincial government of British Columbia is going to lease the seafloor under the biggest wild salmon migration routes in the Canada to an industry known to be associated with a virus that can cause $2 billion in damages, there should at least be an awareness of the risks and some suggestion of planning for an outbreak.

Canada refuses to accept PCR tests as confirmation of the ISA virus (http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/back-fiche/2011/20111108-eng.htm) because the PCR is too sensitive and can lead to false positives. Canada demands the virus be cultured before it is recognized as ISA virus. However, Dr. Kibenge of the OIE reference lab, who diagnosed the Chilean outbreak reports:

I must add that in our experience in Chile it was not very easy to use cell culture as a diagnostic method. In fact, people tried earlier on and most of the cases were always negative. So the principal method in that outbreak was actually real time RT-PCR, it was the most reliable. We could not rely on cell culture. (Dr. Kibenge, Cohen Testimony Dec 15, pg 46, line 13)

Canada’s actions put salmon feedlot industry first, disregarding wild salmon

By not accepting PCR results because they are too sensitive, Canada makes it clear the farm salmon have higher priority than the wild salmon. A decade ago, on October 3, 2003 DFO’s Director General of Science recommended Atlantic salmon be allowed to enter BC from a North Atlantic hatchery that did not meet the Canadian Fish Health Protection Regulations (Cohen Exhibit 1683). That seminal recommendation also placed the industrial salmon producers’ needs above the health of wild salmon. The Canadian Fish Health regulations were designed to protect wild salmon from exotic viruses, such as the European strain of ISAv now being detected and denied by government.

Summary

The federal and provincial governments’ denial of 317 positive PCR tests for ISA virus is not credible. In Chile, results from at least the OIE lab would be accepted as ISA virus. Our government’s own words suggest that a confirmation of the ISA virus in BC would appear to be an insurmountable threat to the salmon feedlot industry. The presence of cancer-causing and/or salmon flu viruses in the farm fish product is not something the market can tolerate or acknowledge. As Minister McRae states, legislators in Asia and the US, the two largest markets for BC farm salmon, were talking about rejecting BC farm salmon if it is ISA virus contaminated.

No one knows what ISA virus will do in the North Pacific. What we do know is that like other flu viruses it mutates readily and has become extremely lethal to salmon in several countries. Miller’s lab found that salmon testing positive for ISA virus demonstrated classic cellular response associated with influenza (Cohen Exhibit 2052).

While the market value of farm salmon is critically low worldwide, BC farm salmon export to China rose from $249,000 in 2010 to more than $3.8 million in 201125 because China decided to reject farm salmon from Norway. BC salmon farms are 98% Norwegian-owned so the same companies that lost the Chinese market in Norway regained it in BC. The price of farm salmon is falling worldwide (Intrafish 2012, numerous articles) so these companies may not be able to survive if, as Minister McRae and Dr. Klotins suggest, the largest BC farm salmon customers do not want ISAv contaminated product.

The federal government is responsible for how salmon feedlots are run, but it’s the Province of BC that rents the industry the seafloor under the pens to anchor their pens. Because the Fraser sockeye migration route was never considered when salmon feedlots were originally sited in BC, (even though tiny salmon-bearing streams were), these inconsistent and reckless decisions have to be revoked. There is no evidence wild salmon will survive the ongoing exposure to high levels of these lethal viruses pouring out of salmon feedlots at a rate of up to 60 billion viral particles and hour (Cohen Exhibit 1529).

Is government being willfully blind to the obvious in order to protect farm salmon trade? The biological, legal and social ramifications are enormous.

If ISA virus is here and being ignored by regulators and if massive numbers of Fraser sockeye have been dying of Salmon Leukemia/Parvovirus from salmon farms for the past 20 years the biological, legal and social ramifications are enormous. It is difficult to understand why DFO and the CFIA never examined whether or not the Salmon Leukemia virus is a danger to wild salmon and humans.

The ISA virus documents brought to light by Cohen make a strong case that the federal and provincial governments are involved in a cover-up. If wild salmon, a beloved national icon, an economic driver in many sectors including tourism and fisheries employment, as well as a food resource, are going to survive, government needs to stop making the salmon feedlot industry our national priority.

Ultimately, we learned in the Cohen Commission that Canada had considered instructing the labs not to test for ISA virus:

Email from: Kim Klotins [CFIA] To: Cornelius Kiley [CFIA] I’m thinking we should also advise all laboratories in Canada to not test any more samples of wild finfish for ISAV from the Pacific Ocean (Canada and US). K Nov. 4, 2011 8:15 am (Cohen Exhibit 2104)

The attitude of the federal government clearly revealed in this internal email chain sent from the CFIA to 8 people within the CFIA. “Con” refers to Cornelius Kiley, Director of the National Aquatic Animal Health at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Concentrate on the headlines – that’s often all that people read or remember… Con

Con,
___________________________________________________________________________________

It is clear that we are turning the PR tide to our favour, - and this is because of the very successful performance of our spokes at the Tech Briefing yesterday, - you, Stephen, Peter and Paul were a terrific team indeed. Congratulations!

One battle is won, now we have to nail the surveillance piece, and we will win the war, also.

Cheers Joe

This email then goes on to list numerous media pieces that reported no sign of ISAv including the Times Colonist, New York Times, Seattle Times, Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Red Deer Advocate etc. (Cohen Exhibit 2110)

In conclusion, I am grateful to Justice Cohen for bringing to light the ISA viral threats wild salmon are facing; without this Commission most of this material would have remained hidden. Now we at least have a chance to recognize what is going on and instruct government on the next steps. This remains a work in progress.