Virus forces untimely harvest at Cooke’s Canadian farm
March 19, 2018
By
Liza Mayer
Findings of infectious salmon anemia (ISAv) virus during a routine inspection at a Cooke Aquaculture’s site in Newfoundland, Canada has forced the untimely harvest of salmon at that site.
Cooke Aquaculture says it is harvesting the entire salmon population in that farm. The discovery of the virus at the site proves that the Province’s surveillance program is effective, it added.
“This proactive approach to harvesting fish immediately following a positive diagnosis has proven to be the most successful method for managing this virus,” said the company.
In October 2017, a Cooke Aquaculture site in the same province also tested positive for ISAv.
ISA is a naturally occurring virus and is not a human health issue or a food safety issue, said the company. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), ISAv outbreaks are most common in susceptible farmed finfish reared in sea water. Depending on the virus strain, the disease can potentially kill up to 90 percent of an infected Atlantic Salmon population, representing significant economic losses for aquaculture operations.
File photo shows fish infected with ISAv 
