Iceland Slaughters ISA-Infected Salmon – is Scotland next in the firing line?

 

 

 

 

RUV reported (13 December 2021):

 

Laxar ISA 13 Dec 2021

Laxar ISA 13 Dec 2021 #2

 

 

Here's a rough translation into English via Google Translate:

 

Laxar slaughter all fish in a farming area in Reyðarfjörður

Rúnar Snær Reynisson – RÚV

Laxar have decided to slaughter salmon from all pens in a farming area in Reyðarfjörður.

A virus that can cause anaemia was diagnosed in one pen there last month. This was the first time that a pathogenic variant of the so-called ISA virus was detected in salmon in Iceland. It belongs to the influenza virus and is sometimes called salmon flu.

The virus was discovered during autopsy and sampling after an abnormal amount of salmon was killed in one female. It was decided in consultation with the Food Administration to kill and dispose of all salmon in the pen. The fish was rather young and far from being slaughtered. Fish were monitored in other pens at the farm and screened for the virus.

Jens Garðar Helgason, CEO of Laxi, says in an interview with the news agency that weak evidence has been found of infection in other pens. However, no abnormal salmon deaths were reported, but in consultation with MAST it was decided to speed up the slaughter of all fish at the station. The company does not want to take any risks and put the area to rest immediately. However, not all of the fish will be discarded, but part of it has reached slaughter size and will be processed.

 

 

 

Undercurrent News reported (14 December 2021):

 

Laxar ISA 13 Dec 2021 #3

 

 

 

Earlier this month (2 December 2021), Scottish Salmon Watch wrote to Scottish Ministers:

 


Letter to Scottish Ministers re ISA in Iceland 2 December 2021 #1

 

 

 

 

Data published by the Scottish Government in September 2021 via the 'Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2020' detailed imports of ova from Iceland flooding 'Scottish' salmon farms following the ban on ova imports from Norway due to ISA risks in 2019:

 

Iceland ova

 

 

 

 

Here's all the ova imports since July 2020 (as disclosed by the Scottish Government via FOI in March 2021):

 

Iceland ova imports 2020 via FOI

Iceland ova imports 2021 via FOI

 

 

 

Scottish Salmon Watch reported last month (26 November 2021):

 

 

 

 

Intrafish reported (26 November 2021):

 

Iceland ISA #2

 

 

Salmon Business reported (26 November 2021) that the suspected case of ISA was at Norwegian-owned Laxar who is understood to source salmon eggs (ova) from Stofnfiskur:

 

Iceland ISA #3

 

 

Fish Farmer reported (29 November 2021):

 

Fish Farmer ISA Iceland 29 Nov 2021 #1

Fish Farmer ISA Iceland 29 Nov 2021 #2

 

 

 

 

Now that Infectious Salmon Anaemia has been reported at Laxar in Iceland (a Norwegian-owned company which is sources ova from Stofnfiskur – rebranded Benchmark Genetics Iceland in January 2021) will Scotland now ban Icelandic ova imports and rely only on Irish ova imports? 

Laxar sources from Stofnfiskur

 

 

 

 

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