Alexandra Morton: HSMI pathogen from Norway found in Canada

Undercurrent News
July 17, 2013

The virus that causes heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) in salmon has been detected outside of Norway for the first time, according a new report’s co-authors, which include Alexandera Morton and researchers from Chile, Norway and Canada.

Morton also refers to Fred Kibenge, whose lab was recently stripped of its credentials by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), as a researcher on the report.

As HSMI spreads rapidly in Norway, the study says the virus that causes the disease – piscine reovirus (PRV) – is in British Columbia, Canada and came from Norway; and it is also present in Chile, with a sequence that most closely matches that in Norway.

Morton, a highly active anti-farming salmon activist in British Columbia, announced the news on Wednesday.

She is also the researcher that announced there was infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in British Columbia in 2011, but that claim was later refuted by the Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), as well as the OIE, an intergovernmental organization responsible for improving animal health worldwide.

“The evidence suggests PRV recently arrived from Norway, which means we have not experienced its full potential to kill B.C. wild salmon yet,” Morton said.

The Canadian province of British Columbia does not accept that PRV causes HSMI; but Morton argues there is no published study supporting the province’s theory.

HSMI, first recognized in Atlantic salmon farms in Norway in 1999, is a condition that weakens salmon, making it difficult for their hearts to pump blood.

Read the full article on Undercurrent News.

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