December 1, 2010

 

Chile calls for ban of infected salmon

 

 

Lawmakers and environmentalists are demanding the Chilean Health Ministry (Minsal) to ban the marketing of more than 100 tonnes of salmon for human consumption as they are infected with the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus.

 

The petition was filed by Senators of Magallane, Pedro Munoz, Guido Girardi and Alejandro Navarro; the council of Punta Arenas, Mario Pascual; and organizations such as the Centro Ecocéanos, the Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), and Citizens Defense League for the Consumer and International Consumers.

 

The National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca) reported that it had discovered an outbreak of ISA in facilities belonging to the Acuimag company, located in the Magallanes region a few weeks ago.

 

It was found that 230 tonnes of salmon were affected by the virus but only 50 tonnes were destroyed while the remaining 180 tonnes were being processed for human consumption in the plant of Pesquera Edén.

 

The director of Centro Ecocéanos, Juan Carlos Cardenas, believed that it is urgent for policy actions and the system for sanitary control of the industry to be strengthened in order to ensure the safety of the industry's aquaculture production.

 

Both the Ministry of Health and Sernapesca said that the virus does not cause problems for humans although it results in a high mortality rates for fish. The Ecocéanos specialist warned that the virus belongs to the same family that produces the human flu and therefore has a great capacity for mutation and adaptation to new hosts.

 

For his part, Senator Muñoz stressed that while there is no conclusive scientific evidence of their safety for human health, health authorities should not impose any risk on the community.

 

This is why the Ministry "should immediately ban the sale and consumption of infected farmed fish from this industry," said Cardenas.

 

Meanwhile, Omar Pérez Santiago, Secretary General of the Citizens Defense League, said the National Consumer Service (Sernac) should inform the public about the presence of the virus in the salmon.

 

Senators criticised the actions of the authorities in Magallanes due to the presence of the virus. The main reason is due to "the lack of inspection to enforce environmental standards," complained Pascual.

 

According to the senator, although the company had permission to produce about 200 tonnes of fish, it was actually producing 600 tonnes of fish when the outbreak of ISA was detected.

 

For its part, the regional government last week formed a contingency table to coordinate the processes and environmental and health measures to be taken in case of detection of a new outbreak.

 

With respect to suitable premises for the disposal of large quantities of infected fish, one of the first measures announced was the creation of short-term health ditches and the installation of a new sanitary landfill to avoid falling back on municipal landfills.