Four More Chilean Salmon Farms infected With ISA Disease

Chile’s National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA) has added four new salmon farms to its list of official Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) “outbreak” sites. ISA is a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans. Over the past year the disease has spread gradually throughout southern Chile’s salmon farming region.

The four new farms, all located in Region X, belong to Pacific Star, Invertec, Congelados Pacifico and Mainstream respectively. SERNAPESCA upgraded the farms from its list of “suspicious” sites, which currently contains 19 facilities – 16 in Region X and three in Region XI.

SERNAPESCA recently confirmed the presence of ISA in far southern Region XII as well. So far, however, the government office has chosen not to include the site – a Marine Harvest reproduction center located near Puerto Natales – on any of its official lists.

Salmon is huge business in Chile, where exports last year brought in more than US$2.2 billion. It has also – at last until 2007 – been an extremely fast growing industry. Between 2003 and 2006 exports increased by an average of 20 percent annually. During the span Chile solidified its place as the world’s number two farmed salmon and trout producer, just behind Norway.

Read the full article by Benjamin Witte in the Patagonia Times.