Puget Sound salmon farm kills entire stock after virus found

This is getting ridiculous.

A deadly fish virus has been detected in Washington state waters for the first time, forcing a fish farm to kill its entire stock of Atlantic salmon.

Tests this month confirmed the presence of an influenza-like virus called infectious hematopoietic necrosis at a salmon farm off Bainbridge Island across from Seattle on Puget Sound.

LINK (via: KATU)

Nope, no ISA virus here

As you may recall some salmon from British Columbia recently tested positive for an Infectous Salmon Anemia virus. While most of the civilized world reacted with alarm, the DFO in Canada came out and said that results were inconclusive at best.

Well guess what?

According to the DFO's own leaked document from 2004, testing done in 2002 and 2003 "lead us to conclude that an asymptomatic form of infectious salmon anemia occurs among some species of wild Pacific salmon in the north Pacific."

A 2004 draft manuscript, leaked out of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, indicates that the deadly infectious salmon anemia virus was identified eight years ago in coho, pink and sockeye salmon taken from southern British Columbia, Southeast Alaska and Bering Sea waters.

Testing done in 2002 and 2003 "lead us to conclude that an asymptomatic form of infectious salmon anemia occurs among some species of wild Pacific salmon in the north Pacific," said the manuscript. 

But a senior official at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently rejected a request to submit the manuscript for publication.

Its lead author was Molly Kilbenge, a scientist working out of the Canadian government's Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C. Three other authors were listed.

LINK (Via: The Seattle PI)

ISA Found in Fraser Coho

The New York Times reports that documents released on Friday show that Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) has been detected in a coho salmon sampled in the Fraser River.

LINK (Via: Osprey Steelhead News)