A study by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists that linked piscine reovirus (PRV) to jaundice and anemia in chinook salmon has been savaged by their own government’s science secretariat.
And an independent review of all the science on PRV – a review requested by the B.C. government – finds no evidence that PRV causes disease in fish in the Pacific the way it appears to in Norway.
That suggests the virus in B.C. might be an innocuous strain.
The two reports’ findings are important because the salmon farming industry faces the threat of being shut down due to concerns about disease transmission from farmed to wild salmon.
In a response to a paper published earlier this year by a team of scientists with the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI) that linked PRV and jaundice in chinook salmon, Canada’s Centre for Science Advice (CSA) said the conclusions are unsubstantiated.
Nelson Bennett – Business in Vancouver – July 17, 2018.
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