Fisheries Committee on April 26th, 2021

[Rebecca Reid]

With regard to information-sharing within the department, we certainly would share information of that nature for context and general awareness. With regard to the consultation process that went on with first nations, I wasn't in the room with them, so I can't speak specifically to that. If you wish, I think Dr. Parsons could speak more specifically to some of those conversations.

[Dr. Jay Parsons, Director, Aquaculture, Biotechnology and Aquatic Animal Health Science Branch, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

The specific point about Tenacibaculum was not brought up as part of the technical briefings we had with the first nations. Their primary interest in the briefings that we provided really revolved around the nine risk assessments, and that had been—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Was the minister briefed?

[Dr. Jay Parsons]

I wasn't involved in any of the briefings with the minister or with the minister's consultations with the first nations.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Can anyone confirm if the minister was briefed on this?

[Rebecca Reid]

I can confirm, Mr. Johns, that the issue was definitely raised to the office. That's as far as I could say.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Dr. Miller-Saunders, in your view, are bacteria from fish farms such as mouth rot, a source of harm that should be reduced to the maximum extent possible? Maybe you can speak about the emerging research on the potential of mouth rot from fish farms to have population level effects on wild Pacific salmon.

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

Tenacibaculum is the agent. Mouth rot is the disease that the agent causes in Atlantic salmon, so it's not mouth rot that has the impact. However, as I said before, Tenacibaculum was coming out of our models as being one of the most consistently associated with population level impacts. Moreover, in sockeye salmon we found that the highest incidence of infection was in fish migrating past farms in the Discovery Islands.

We then employed spatial and epidemiological models and fit the data from migrating sockeye salmon to identify whether farms in the Discovery Islands were a source or the dominant source of Tenacibaculum infection along the Fraser River sockeye salmon migration route. Not only did the models confirm that the best-fitted models confirmed that the highest source of Tenacibaculum was around the Discovery Island farms, we were also able to show that in the water column Tenacibaculum was one of the agents most strongly concentrated around active farms, compared with fallow farms. There was a lot of Tenacibaculum in the water column.

Further, we looked at whether or not treatment of mouth rot was a correlated factor with the potential transmission into wild fish. We did not find any effective treatment; a farm simply being stocked with fish was enough to create a risk to wild migrating salmon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Johns.

We'll now go to Mr. Calkins for five minutes or less, please.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be asking my questions of Ms. Miller-Saunders.

Do you believe the information that you are providing through the SSHI is informing policy today for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

I do believe that the information is provided to managers—certainly to managers in direct line of authority from me. Whether the information I provide is actually going to the resource managers is not something I'm aware of. I don't handle those briefings.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

That's understood. I'll let the folks at the table who might be able to answer that, answer that in a bit.

I want to talk to you a little bit more about your research. Has the work you've done with Dr. Riddell been published anywhere? Has it been peer reviewed or anything like that?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

I don't know which research you're talking about, but we have published 50 papers from the SSHI in the last six years.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

It's consistent with international findings, wherever else there are fish farms or wherever else there are similar types of species. Is that correct?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

Absolutely. Our PRV papers have been published with the same vets that have originally described HSMI in Norway. One of our lead vets is a very predominant pathologist out of Europe.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

I want to talk to you a little bit about the comment you made about the nidovirus insofar as hatcheries. You said that it's found in “respiratory gill tissue of salmon released from some federal hatcheries”.

These would not be hatcheries, of course, that would be providing Atlantic salmon to the farms. They would be hatcheries that are producing Pacific salmon. Is that correct?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

That's correct. These are enhancement hatcheries.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Are they all enhancement hatcheries? Is none of it in the community-based hatcheries, to your knowledge yet? Have you even been able to look?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

We have not looked a lot at community-based hatcheries. We've looked at some, but we have seen that particular virus coming out of hatcheries on the east coast and west coast of Vancouver Island and in the Fraser River.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Is there any reason for you to believe that it hasn't always been there? Is it coming in through the brood stock or is it being picked up in the hatchery scenario?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

Those are really good questions. We have picked up Pacific salmon nidovirus in farmed chinook salmon. We know it's on Pacific salmon farms. We also have picked it up in the odd returning adult wild fish, so it is out there.

The thing that's really different about this particular one is that we rarely detect it in wild salmon coming out of fresh water. Where we're seeing it has been in hatcheries.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

How would you know that, if the hatchery fish aren't completely marked? How do you differentiate an unmarked hatchery chinook from an unmarked wild chinook in the same system?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

For one thing we actually get fish from the hatcheries. We take samples of fish before they've released them. After that, you're absolutely right; we are only able to use the adipose fin clip to identify if it as a hatchery fish or not.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Would it be helpful to your research if we actually marked all chinook and coho?

[Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders]

Absolutely.