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Author Topic: Piscine reovirus (causative agent of HSMI)—a salmon virus fresh from Norway  (Read 2297 times)

alwaysfishn

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http://www.straight.com/news/408576/twyla-roscovich-piscine-reovirus-salmon-virus-fresh-norway

"HSMI is a serious salmon disease that is now very common in salmon farms in Norway. In fact, in its 2012 annual report, Marine Harvest lists HSMI as the second-leading cause of fish losses for the company. Although the disease may only kill 10 to 20 percent of salmon in a farm, 100 percent can be affected by the heart lesions to varying degrees. HSMI damages the heart and muscle tissue, which interferes greatly with the fish’s ability to absorb oxygen and swim.

Salmon sick with HSMI swim slowly and often rest against the side of the pens for long periods. It typically takes several weeks for a salmon to recover from this disease. Although it is a problem for the salmon-farming industry, it can live with it because most infected farm salmon eventually do recover. It is alarming, however, to think what HSMI means for wild salmon, which do not have the luxury of resting for weeks while they recover.........

B.C. wild salmon could easily be contracting the virus as juveniles as they pass the farms on their way out to sea. The Norwegian scientists say it takes several months after contracting the virus for the heart damage to develop. By then, the wild salmon would be well on their way to the North Pacific, possibly unable to catch food and escape predators. Millions could be disappearing due to this disease and no one would ever know. It is baffling that no one seems to be paying any attention to this serious threat to one of B.C.’s most important public resources.

Another aspect to this issue is that this virus is quietly present wherever infected farmed salmon are sold. Since it is such a durable virus, when people wash farmed fillets under running water, PRV could be entering watersheds from the Fraser River to California and Asia. PRV not only infects salmon, but has also been found in herring and trout with unknown consequences."
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Disclosure:  This post has not been approved by the feedlot boys, therefore will likely be found to contain errors and statements that are out of context. :-[

Bassonator

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YYYYYAAAWWWWNNNN....... :o
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Take the T out of Morton.