Grieg hit by another ISA outbreak

GRIEG Seafood has reported a suspected outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) at one of its farms in Norway.

If confirmed, it will be at least the third case to affect the company since last September.

The location is Grieg’s Stangnes site in the Hammerfest area of Troms and Finnmark where around 800,000 fish are thought to be in various stages of cultivation.

The Norwegian Food safety Authority has imposed the usual restrictions when such incidents occur, which means that everyone engaged in fish farming has to take special measures to prevent further spread of this viral disease.

Restrictions include a ban on the movement of fish without special permission and the possibility of the cages being emptied and the fish culled.

It does stress, however, that while damaging to the fish, ISA is not harmful to humans.

The food safety authority said it was notified by Pharmaq Analytic that, following an analysis of samples taken at the site, the findings were shown to be compatible with ISA. .

It is planning to inspect facility and take follow up samples after which it should be able to confirm whether or not ISA is present.

The area around Stangnes is already under ISA controls and this is the second occasion Grieg has suffered an outbreak near this site, the previous one in October last year. This followed a confirmation at another Finnmark location a few weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, the food safety authority has recently confirmed a suspected outbreak at a Lovundlaks owned farm at Lurøy in Nordland and the fish in the infected cages have been culled.

The farm was home to more than 800,000 salmon and it is possible the entire site may have to be emptied.

 

 

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