CFIA committed to disease control process
Nanaimo, Thursday, August 16, 2012
Re: 'Protecting wild fish must be made a priority' (Daily News, Aug. 13)
I would like to address comments about protecting wild fish off the coast of British Columbia. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is committed to protecting the health of both wild and farmed fish.
We take reports of diseases such as infectious haematopoietic necrosis very seriously.
In Canada, infectious haematopoietic necrosis is a federally reportable disease. This means that all suspected or confirmed cases must be immediately reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The recent findings of infectious haematopoietic necrosis at three aquaculture premises in British Columbia have been responsibly managed following international and federal disease control guidelines.
In all instances, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was immediately notified and moved quickly to implement disease control measures.
In addition, this spring we initiated comprehensive surveillance that includes collecting and testing 5,000 wild fish annually for a minimum of two years. Many organizations support the agency in this initia-tive, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Province of British Columbia, First Nations groups, and the aquaculture industry.
This work will determine the status of three diseases in B.C. - infectious haematopoietic necrosis, infectious pancreatic necrosis and infectious salmon anaemia.
Any confirmed disease cases will be reported on a monthly basis through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's website as is done for all terrestrial and aquatic reportable diseases. This surveillance initiative is evidence-based, transparent and rigorous. Similarly, science will guide our response to the survey's findings which will be publicly reported.
We remain committed to keeping Canadians informed of our disease control measures and surveillance results.
Dr. Ian Alexander, executive director, Animal Health Directorate Canadian Food Inspection Agency
To read a Mainstream Canada Letter to the Editor "Claims about fish farming questioned" and the column CFIA and Mainstream Canada responded to, go to: http://www.farmfreshsalmon.org/column-claims-about-fish-farming-questioned
