The Cohen Commission: Egg Trade

Ray Grigg
January 20, 2012
Courier Islander

Published: Friday, January 20, 2012 (Editor's note: In a letter to the editor in Wednesday's Courier-Islander Dr. Ian Alexander, Executive Director, Canadian Food Inspection Agency made the following statement: "I want to be very clear, that to date no trace of ISA has been detected in B.C. salmon."

Also, in another letter to the editor in Wednesday's Courier-Islander, Gary Marty, BC Ministry of Agriculture, made the following statement: "As part of my work as the BC Ministry of Agriculture's fish pathologist, last fall I reviewed... results in our diagnostic laboratory from five farmed chinook salmon re-tested for ISAV.

"Samples from all five fish yielded a band that was very similar to our ISAV-positive control, but when we sequenced the PCR product to determine its identity, it didn't match anything. The closest match was mouse (see Cohen Commission Exhibit #s 2079 and 2080.)

"I view mouse-like results in a test for a salmon virus as evidence of "nonspecific amplification." This means that the test did not work properly and needed to be redone; it is not grounds to report to OIE. The test was repeated several times, and all results were negative - no virus.") The source of the suspected infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) that was reported to be found in BC's wild salmon would have almost certainly from imported Atlantic salmon eggs, the international trade that at one time provided coastal salmon farms with most of their stock. The salmon farming industry, of course, says that ISAv is not here, although evidence given at the Cohen Commission's extraordinary three days of hearings on Dec. 15, 16 and 19 suggests otherwise.

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Posted January 20th, 2012