July 14, 2020

Cold Ocean Salmon's fish cage site in Newfoundland tests positive for anemia virus

Cold Ocean Salmon, a division of Cooke Aquaculture, said one of its marine cage sites in Newfoundland, Canada, was found positive for the infectious salmon anemia virus, CBC News reported on Monday, July 13.

Although the virus is not a human health or food safety concern, the company said in a statement Monday that it plans to remove the fish contained in the cages since this is the best method for managing the virus, which was detected by the Atlantic salmon aquatic animal health surveillance programme.

"The company has taken all the responsible steps under the oversight of the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Fisheries and Land Resources and is following government-approved policies", said the company's statement.

In the same report, Cooke's vice-president of public relations, Joel Richardson, maintained that just one salmon tested positive for the virus.

He told CBC News: "No farmed salmon have perished as a result of the confirmed test and we had been planning to harvest the farm site as they are market size".

The virus was detected at the company's North of Killbuck Cove marine cage site, which is near McCallum on Newfoundland's south coast, as per report.

Cold Ocean Salmon said the site contains six cages that are stocked with about 340,000 Atlantic salmon.