José Miguel Burgos, SERNAPESCA national director. (Photo: Sernapesca)
CHILE
Monday, August 18, 2014, 23:30 (GMT + 9)
A "relevant sanitary improvement" has been experienced by the Chilean salmon industry so far this year, according to a new report from the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (SERNAPESCA).
"In the first place, from a production point of view, what we have is fewer stocked centres. However, the total biomass present in the sea is higher in the order of 10 per cent over the previous year," SERNAPESCA national director, José Miguel Burgos, stated when last week he presented the Marine Centre Health Report for the first half of 2014 in Puerto Montt.
At the event, which was attended by officials of the Secretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SUBPESCA) and representatives of the productive sector, Burgos announced that in terms of production, it is projected that this year similar results to those in 2013 will be obtained.
"With a change in the participation proportions by species, with a significant increase in Atlantic salmon and also a significant reduction in trout production," he added.
SERNAPESCA director ensured that the situation of the virus infectious salmon anemia (ISA) is "under absolute control". He said the last detected case in the centre of Traiguén 1 – belonging to the company Invertec Pesquera Mar de Chiloe (Invermar) -- "was properly controlled and with all the analysis performed around the focus and perifocus, we can now rule out the presence of new onset of this virus in the area."
Burgos also stressed that the Veterinary Service of the European Union considered the SERNAPESCA Specific Programme for ISA Virus Control and Monitoring as a programme of world standard and meets all requirements for disease control.
"This is a recognition of the working teams that have spent years on this line and places us today as the Chilean state’s State Veterinary Service globally," he stated.
However, he clarified that "ISA virus is present in Chile and therefore it is expected, compared to stressors, the appearance of new cases of the disease in the Atlantic salmon species in the regions of Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes."
Given this situation, he emphasized that "the key to success is the early notification by businesses and strengthen the early detection in farming centres."
Furthermore, SERNAPESCA report indicates that there have been significant reductions in parasite loads of sea lice or caligus in the regions of Magallanes, Los Lagos and Aysén.
This situation is reflected in fewer high spread centres (CAD), which is the indicator used by SERNAPESCA to measure this disease status.
Burgos attributed the decline to several factors, among which he mentioned: an improvement in environmental conditions, better management by the industry and the improvement of the control programme.
"Treatment rotation has also been prominent in parasite control and we hope they it can be maintained now that the difficult period (second half of the year) begins and we are starting it with lower loads than those we had in the same period last year," he pointed out.
Salmon Rickettsial Syndrome (SRS) is currently the leading cause of mortality in the salmon industry, particularly in trout farming.
While trout mortality associated with the disease has declined, SERNAPESCA believes that "this is far from being a good health status." To the authority, the challenge is to modify its control programme "to generate a greater impact in reducing this disease."
Moreover, SERNAPESCA director acknowledged that they are concerned about the onset of a syndrome affecting trout.
"We coined the name of the trout’s idiopathic syndrome (SIT) and we are still investigating this issue, but I want to be emphatic in reiterating that all analysis we have performed in Chile and Europe have been quite negative for the diseases offering the greatest risk," he said.
In his opinion, "it would be a different agent having quite milder epidemiological behavior and mortality rate than other diseases."
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