Virus is killing Chilean farmed salmon
PUERTO MONTT, Chile - A virus called infectious salmon anemia, or ISA, is killing millions of salmon destined for export to Japan, Europe, and the United States. The spreading plague has sent shivers through Chile's third-largest industry, which has embittered locals by laying off more than 1,000 workers.
The contagion has also opened the companies to fresh charges from biologists and environmentalists who say that the breeding of salmon in crowded underwater pens is contaminating once-pristine waters and producing potentially unhealthy fish.
"All these problems are related to an underlying lack of sanitary controls," said Dr. Felipe C. Cabello, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., who has studied Chile's fishing industry. "Parasitic infections, viral infections, fungal infections are all disseminated when the fish are stressed and the centers are too close together."
Industry executives acknowledge some problems, but they reject the notion that their practices are unsafe for consumers. American officials also say the new virus is not harmful to humans.
But the latest outbreak has occurred after a rash of nonviral illnesses in recent years that the companies acknowledge have led them to use high levels of antibiotics.
Researchers say the practice is widespread in the Chilean industry, which is a mix of international and Chilean producers. Some of those antibiotics, they say, are prohibited for use on animals in the United States.
Many of those salmon still end up in American grocery stores, where about 29 percent of Chilean exports are shipped. While fish from China have come under special scrutiny in recent months, in Chile regulators have yet to form a registry that even tracks the use of the drugs, researchers said.
