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- THE world's largest
salmon farming company has been linked
to the spread of a deadly fish
flu virus in Scotland.
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- Eight out of 11 salmon farms confirmed by government
scientists to have infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) are owned by Hydro
Seafood.
A further two farms were infected after introducing young
salmon from a
Hydro Seafood farm.
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- The virus, a notifiable disease
that has led to the slaughter
of millions of farmed salmon, costing the
industry an estimated £38m,
was first recorded in Scotland in May
1998 at a Hydro farm in Loch Nevis,
near Mallaig.
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- Hydro Seafood, which is owned
by the Norwegian multi-national
Norsk Hydro, admits there are clear
links between this first discovery
of ISA and all but one of the later
cases. Last week government scientists
alarmed environmentalists by
revealing they had found ISA in wild fish,
including salmon, trout and
eels, for the first time.
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- David Rackham, director of Hydro Seafood's Scottish
operation,
said: "There is clearly a link between the point source
in Nevis,
which is where the outbreak first occurred in 1998 and our
own farms in
other areas."
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- He added that the company had
unwittingly spread the
virus by selling young salmon, known as smolts,
to Marine Harvest McConnell.
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- "There's no doubt at all that we have inadvertently
spread it from our own operations. We sold smolts on to Marine Harvest
McConnell and then they transferred this up to Shetland from their
operation
on Skye."
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- Hydro runs 28 of the 340 salmon farms around Scotland,
an industry which employs 6,000 people. Hydro employs about 300 and will
harvest nearly 20,000 tonnes of fish this year.
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- But Rackham distanced his
company from any blame in introducing
the virus to Scotland. He said
last week's announcement of ISA in wild
fish suggested the virus was
already present in the environment and that
salmon farms simply
provided it with the right conditions to thrive.
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- But Dr Richard Dixon, head of
research at Friends of
the Earth Scotland, said: "ISA is endemic
in Norway, eight out of
the 11 confirmed sites (in Scotland) are
controlled by the Norwegian multi-national
Norsk Hydro and every
confirmed ISA case but one has since been traced
back to the Hydro
Seafood farm in Loch Nevis. It would be a most remarkable
coincidence
if ISA was not imported into Scotland from Norway. ISA is here
to
stay."
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- The argument over the original source of ISA shows no
signs of
being resolved. The virus, which causes haemorrhaging in the fish's
kidneys and liver if it develops to full-blown disease, was first recorded
in Norway in 1984. It was reported in Canada in 1996 and was discovered
in Scotland last year.
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- The Scottish Executive said that tests showed the viral
strain found in Scotland was "distinct" from the strain in
Norwegian
waters although it shared a "98%-99%"
similarity.
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- Twenty-four Scottish farms have been designated as
"suspected"
of harbouring ISA. They are subject to a
quarantine but are not required
to kill stock. Hydro has launched legal
action against the government for
about £20m compensation for
compulsory destruction of fish on farms
where the virus has been
confirmed.
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