(a) Infectious salmon anaemia, ISA, has only been found in Atlantic salmon marine farms in the Bay of Fundy along the south west coast of New Brunswick. Twenty one farms have been infected in three bays, Limekiln, Bliss Harbour ans Seal Cove.
(b) The aquaculture industry on the east coast has supported the establishment of a comprehensive ISA control program. A series of procedures have been or will soon be implemented including strict site disinfection and disinfection of waste water from fish processing plants. The industry has also relied on early harvest, i.e. before there are signs of the disease, as a measure to control ISA. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Atlantic salmon have been, or are in the process of being, eradicated in the three affected bays. The economic impact of ISA is estimated to be as high as $25-30 million.
(c) Infectious salmon anaemia, ISA, is a viral disease with no known treatment, so chemicals and antibiotics are not being used to control this disease. There are also no vaccines available to prevent infection of Atlatic salmon with the ISA virus. Instead, the prevention and control of ISA are based on comprenhensive management measures such as cleaning and disinfection of farm premises and equipement, restricted movement of live adult fish, disease surveillance, and disinfection of offal on waste from fish slaughterhouses. Sanitary slaughtering of market fish, i.e. slaughtering fish before there are disease signs, form farms where ISA is present il also recommended.
(d) No chemicals antibiotics or other medicines have been used to control this disease, so there is no impact on wild salmon, shellfish and other marine life.
(e) It is always possible that local wild Atlantic slamon, the same species as cultured Atlantic salmon, have been affected by ISA. However, ISA was first recognized in Norway in 1984, and the Norwegian authorities still consider ISA as a disease of farmed, not wild, Atlantic salmon in marine cages or land based facilities using seawater. The same situation is observed in New Brunswick. ISA has only been found in cultured Atlantic salmon in seawater, and testing of wild salmon and juvenile salmon in freshwater hatcheries has been negative for ISA.
(f) In New Brunswick, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, has no direct responsibility for controlling ISA in marine farms. The provincial department of fisheries and aquaculture has the responsibility for controlling diseases in salmon farms under the provincial aquaculture act. DFO's mandate in New Brunswick relates only to protecting the health of wild fish.
However, DFO has provided considerable scientific support to the province in terms of disease diagnostics, disease surveillance in wild fish, and participating on committees established to advise the New Brunswick government on ways to control ISA.
(g) ISA is not known to occur in wild fish, either in Canada or Norway where the disease was first detected. ISA has also been reported very recently in Scotland for the first time, again only in farmed fish in coastal waters. So DFO has not taken any specific action to date to control the spread of ISA to wild fish in New Brunswick. DFO is represented on committees mandated to control and manage the disease in aquaculture facilities and is monitoring the situation closely.
(h) ISA is not believed to be transmitted from parents to progeny via eggs. However, if transmission of ISA to ohter provinces on the east coast is to occur, it would likely be through the movement of live eggs and fish. Such transfers are controlled under the fish health protection regulations or under section 4 of the Fisheries Act. Live eggs or fish are only tranferred to other provinces form New Brunswick if sources have been inspected for and found to be free of the ISA virus.
(i) There is no historical evidence that ISA occurs in wild fish; nor is there evidence that ISA has been transmitted to wild populations of salmon in New Brunswick. In 1997, DFO tested more than 100 wild salmonids for the presence of ISA and all fish were negative. And additional 120 wild juvenile Atlantic salmon have been tested by DFO in 1998, as well as samples from herring, cod, pollock, mackerel and flounder. Furthermore, adult Atlantic salmon returning to rivers draining into the inner Bay of Fundy are being sampled, 30 adults so far, including some fish that escaped from aquaculture cages. As in 1997 all tests to date are negative for ISA.
(j) Research efforts in DFO Science has focused on comfirming that ISA was the disease agent for the syndrome that was causing high mortalities on salmon farms in south west New Brunswick, and to assess the validity of cell culture to diagnose infectious salmon anaemia. All the research results on transmission of the disease are completed and were made public during scientific conferences, workshops or meetings. The laboratory work on using cell culture as a diagnotic tool has just been completed, and results will be made available as described upon completion of the data analysis. DFO is also paying for a contract to study the epidemiology of ISA. The contract report will be a public document.
(k) Work by DFO on ISA has been performed periodically by several DFO scientific staff within the existing work-plans. No additional money has been allocated, although it has necessitated a rearragement of priorities in certain cases. DFO is also paying $45,000 for a contract that is now in progress, to study the epidemiology of ISA.
(l) ISA is considered a manageable disease in Norway if management measures described in (c) are implemented. DFO has not studied alternatives to net-pen culture.
(m) In North America, ISA has only been found in Atlantic salmon reared in marine cages in the Bay of Fundy south west New Brunswick. As the Atlantic salmon farmed on the west coast are the same species they would be susceptible, but there is no indication of the disease in British Columbia.
(n) No, ISA has not been detected on the west coast.
(o) The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for protecting the health of fisheries resources in Canada. Any interprovincial movement of live salmonid eggs and fish, e.g. transfers from New Bruswick to British Columbia, is subject to requirements of the fish health protection regualtions, or under section of the Fisheries Act. Sources of eggs and live ish originating from New Brunswick would have to be inspected and certified free of ISA before and import permit was issued for the importation to another province such as British Columbia. As an added precaution because of the presence of ISA in New Brunswick, local fish health officers who administer the fish health protection regulations on the east coast have agreed not to approve request to transfer live fish from marine cages located in the Bay of Fundy to any other province.
(p) The measures described in (o) minimize the risk if ISA being transferred to the west coast.
(q) The measures described in (o) minimize the risk of transferring ISA to any salmonid stocks on the west coast. These meaures are meant to protect wild coho salmon as well as farmed salmon. It should be noted that Pacific salmon is a different genus to Atlantic salmon, and the virus has not been found in Pacific salmon species.
(r) This is a highly hypothetical question since ISA is not present on the west coast and its distribution is limited to farmed fish in south west New Brunswick. ISA is a disease affecting only farmed Atlantic salmon. To our knowledge it has never been found in wild Atlantic salmon populations. Atlantic salmon is the only species that we know is susceptible to this disease.
Question No. 104—
