Salmon - Photographer: Espen Bierud / Institute of Marine Research
NMF registers that the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has received a report with 5 possible ways to combat ILA in Norwegian Salmon Farming as listed here.
- Option 1 – Voluntary combat
- Alternative 2 – Voluntary control with room for private/public collaboration on individual control measures
- Option 3 - National control plan - voluntary vaccination
- Option 4 - National control plan - compulsory vaccination
- Option 5 - Regional control plan - compulsory regional vaccination.
The NMF sees that the expert group with its report, and the industry players focus on this disease as a major financial problem for the industry itself, and has calculated the costs for the industry by choosing the various alternatives. But the NMF cannot see that the expert group has looked at the consequences of the different alternatives on wild fish such as Arctic char and sea trout. The NMF believes that infection by ILA from the infected facilities to wild fish and mortality from this should also be included as an element when choosing which alternative must be chosen to combat ILA.
It is now beyond any doubt that ILA and other diseases in the breeding facilities infect wild fish, and not just vice versa. See article from DN where Professor Are Nylynd, who has researched infectious fish diseases such as ILA for over 30 years, talks about this infection from farms to wild salmon.
Researcher: No doubt about spread of deadly virus from farmed fish to wild fish | DN
See The Norwegian Environmental Protection Association's consultation response here (PDF).
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