[8] Canada Can't Confirm ISA Virus In Latest Samples
Canada's Food Inspection Agency has not been able to confirm the presence of the ISA virus in fish samples from a West Coast DFO scientist, who had announced her positive findings at a three-day hearing on the virus held in Vancouver B.C. last December.
"The CFIA did request that the samples tested by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO) Kristi Miller be sent to the DFO national reference laboratory in Moncton, New Brunswick, for further testing," Guy Gravelle, CFIA senior media relations officer told NW Fishletter in an email earlier today. "Those tests were negative for infectious salmon anemia (ISA)."
The Moncton lab has not been able to confirm the presence of ISA in samples that had tested positive for signs of the virus at three other labs.
Gravelle said his agency was collaborating with DFO to finalize an official surveillance plan for salmon diseases, including ISA, in B.C. waters.
"The surveillance initiative will complement existing disease surveillance activities for salmon species," said Gravelle. "It will facilitate early disease detection and response, and provide further scientific evidence to support Canada's status for ISA and other viral diseases of concern."
On Dec. 15, Kristi Miller, a DFO scientist who works at the agency's research station in Nanaimo, B.C., said in published testimony that she had evidence that parts of the ISA virus showed up in adult Fraser sockeye and pink samples she had recently tested. Her results showed the virus was present in 1986, she said, adding, "It's been here, probably quite considerably longer than that." Miller also said that signs of the virus showed up in 25 percent of recent tests she had run on samples from an aquaculture operation on the west side of Vancouver Island.
But a Norwegian virus expert, Arne Nylund, who testified by live video feed, argued that Miller's results were suspicious, citing highly technical elements of the testing procedures that could lead to major errors.
Meanwhile, back in the USA, fish biologists from several agencies in the Northwest are working to complete a report to the Senate by next May that would outline a monitoring plan and how to pay for it. Sen. Maria Cantwell, (D-WA), along with Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), led an effort requiring the National Aquatic Animal Health Task Force (an existing partnership between USDA, USGS, NOAA and others) to report to Congress on the research, interagency coordination, and responses necessary to deal with potential effects of the ISA virus.
Bruce Stewart, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission's fish health program manager, said it's likely that first stage of the proposed 2-year effort will look at stocks in Alaska and Washington, and depending on results, could be expanded. He hoped the US monitoring effort could be "harmonized" with the Canadian plan, so results could be compared. Stewart said US scientists are now working to develop testing procedures that will allow them to look for the agent that some of the Canadian labs are reporting. -B. R.
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