Spain’s Pescanova Group has a pioneering history in Chile. With 15 years of salmon farming experience in Chile’s southernmost Regions, it was one of the first companies to initiate salmon farming operations in Aysén in the early 90’s, and was the first to branch into Magallanes in 2002. Due to the company’s strategy of farming where no farm has gone before it has not suffered the health problems that most other companies have. The farm site that tested positive is located near Puerto Natales, and close to a recently established farm site of Marine Harvest. Although the neighbouring Marine Harvest site tested positive for ISA in June, both Sernapesca and the company claimed that the screening proved insubstantial; that only one fish in one cage tested positive and wasn’t enough to confirm a case of ISA. Soon after Marine Harvest eliminated the entire farm in effort to eliminate any possible association with the company and the disease in Magallanes. SalmonChile informed the Diario Fianciero that they are investigating the possible origins of where the virus entered the Region, and suspect that it was through eggs acquired in Region X, or the fish from the neighbouring Marine Harvest site. Nova Austral, the name of Pescanova’s salmon production area in Magallanes is voluntarily eliminating 300,000 pre-smolts that were destined to be placed in the company’s Puerto Natales farm sites.
