Marine Harvest solicits help with ISA problem
Since last week’s report on the ISA issue affecting Atlantic salmon farms near the island of Chiloé (“ISA virus on the rise” 21.08.07), the motivational message by Centrovet manager Tomislav Jakovljevic to rally key people to work together in facing this potentially serious problem has yet to spark the multi-lateral camaraderie hoped for. This week Adolfo Alvial, who served over 5 years as general manager of INTESAL, SalmonChile’s Technical Institute of Salmon prior to his new position as technical director of Marine Harvest, has solicited the same plea – calling upon the salmon industry to work together on solving this fish health problem. Over two weeks ago the national fisheries service, SERNAPESCA, ordered thirty farm sites as under quarantine, eleven of which belong to Marine Harvest. Today, 220 thousand fish have died from the virus and nearly 1.1 million fish have been sacrificed from quarantined sites. According to an initial estimate earlier this month by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the total number of fish susceptible to the virus is slightly over 1.9 million. So far the quarantined area has not reached beyond the sector of Lemuy, an island within the archipelago of Chiloé.
