'Depopulation' unfortunate key word in some farm sites August 22, 2012
Addie Hollingsworth: ”"Bawden was not positive for IHN," said Mainstream's Laurie Jensen. "As the fish are now harvest size, a scheduled harvest continued as planned but not because of any tests." ya sure it was...you just don't want the public to know that diseased farm fish are heading to the stores....again! :(“ The IHN virus continues to play havoc with BC Fish Farms, making 'depopulation' a key word in 2012 aquaculture industry reports. Last week Mainstream Canada announced it was killing all the fish at its Millar Channel farm, northwest of Tofino, following a positive infectious haematopoetic necrosis virus test. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ordered Mainstream to depopulate roughly 400 tons of fish at the site. The fish had been in the water about six months. On Thursday, Mainstream announced the last of the fish had been killed and taken to a rendering facility. The company said it was focusing on developing a plan for cleaning and disinfecting the farm site as required by CFIA. "This is an unfortunate incident, but we are pleased with how smoothly the depopulation procedure went considering the situation," said Fernando Villarroel, Mainstream Canada's managing director. "We are pleased with how the CFIA acted quickly to confirm the virus. Early detection of infectious diseases and swift and decisive actions help the long term sustainability of our business as responsible farmers." For Mainstream, this marks the second depopulation of a farm this year due to the IHN virus. Mainstream killed off roughly 570,000 Atlantic salmon, about 1.2 million pounds of fish, at its Dixon Bay farm after an IHN outbreak in May. Mainstream Canada is one of the largest salmon farming companies in BC, with 27 farm sites, four land-based hatcheries, one processing plant and over 260 employees. Meanwhile Grieg Seafood BC confirmed last week it had completed depopulation of its Culloden Point fish farm in Jervis Inlet on the Sunshine Coast, following a positive IHN test result. "There were 316,000 fish on the farm with an average weight of about 500 grams," Grieg's managing director Stewart Hawthorn told the Courier-Islander. "That made a total biomass of approximately 150MT (metric tonnes). By way of comparison, we harvest approximately 75 to 100MT of fish every day."