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Mowi-owned Northern Harvest Sea Farms (NHSF) has confirmed the presence of Infectious Salmon Anaemia virus (ISA) at its Cinq Island Cove marine site located off the south coast of Newfoundland in Canada.
NHSF is removing all Atlantic salmon raised in the same cage with the two fish identified as positive by the Provincial Government’s aquatic animal health surveillance program.
The cage contains approximately 200,000 Atlantic salmon, and the marine site is comprised of three cages containing a total of approximately 600,000 Atlantic salmon.
Fish from all other cages at the site have tested negative.
The quarantine order issued by the Department of Fisheries, Forestry, and Agriculture for Cinq Island Cove remains in effect.
The infection comes three months after Newfoundland Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne reinstated 10 aquaculture site licences belonging to Northern Harvest Sea Farms, a division of Mowi Canada East, in the Fortune Bay region on the south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The operation has been riddled with problems over the past year in particular. Last year Byrne suspended Northern Harvest’s 10 farming licenses, citing the company’s failure to disclose to the department in a timely manner all relevant information relating to a salmon mass mortality event at the sites.
In March, a site in Newfoundland and Labrador reported potential infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in three Atlantic salmon parr during a routine sampling at its hatchery.
In May, the division reported a lumpfish die-off while transferring the fish from a wellboat to a farming site.(Copyright)