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Herald, Glasgow, Monday 29 nov
Executive challenged over spread of disease
CRAIG WATSON
ANGLERS and conservationists have questioned why Government scientists took 17
months to find that a virus which has devastated stocks of farmed salmon had
also infected wild fish.
Details of scientific tests on wild sea trout have emerged in a letter which has
been passed to The Herald.
The correspondence, from the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen to a gamekeeper
involved in supplying the fish, shows that eight sea trout were tested for
infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) in June, 1998. The fish were taken from the
mouth of River Inverie, Mallaig, which runs into Loch Nevis - the source of the
ISA outbreak less than a month earlier.
The letter, dated November 4 this year, claims that early post-mortem tests on
the fish found no signs of ill health.
It says that genetic tests, referred to as the "PCR method", were carried out
with inconclusive results.
It adds: "However, we now know that the result, while being weak, is a positive
result . . . this result is good evidence for the four fish being tested
positive for ISA virus."
The letter acknowledges that the 17-month span between the firsts tests and the
production of conclusive results must appear lengthy, saying: "I apologise
for what must seem like a long delay in providing these results".
The letter was sent the day the Government announced that the ISA virus had been
confirmed in wild fish for the first time. It was also identified in other
species of fish and in freshwater, rather than only in the marine environment.
Environmentalists yesterday questioned if the Executive had suspected since the
original outbreak that the virus had jumped to wild stocks but done nothing for
17 months. If not, they asked why it had taken so long to process the scientific
tests, particularly when the disease had led to the destruction of more than
four million farmed fish and wild stocks have suffered serious decline.
Friends of the Earth Scotland director Kevin Dunion said: "It would appear that
the Scot-tish Executive sat on this information for almost 18 months, which
raises the question of their handling of the whole ISA crisis.
"It is unreasonable and unacceptable that samples should take 18 months to
process, given the importance of the industry in Scotland."
He added that many questions about ISA remained unanswered, stressing that more
research should be carried out as a matter of urgency.
The Scottish Anglers' National Association also expressed concern over the
handling of the ISA crisis.
President Jane Wright said that stocks of grilse, young salmon that have only
been to sea once, had suffered a major collapse this year. She said that could
be because of ISA, although the reasons were not yet clear.
She said the Executive had been "less than transparent" since the ISA outbreak
and questioned why it had taken so long to make a public statement on the links
with wild fish.
She said angling and other interests in the Salmonid Fisheries Forum were
seeking a meeting with Executive officials to clarify a range of issues.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive, which is responsible for the marine lab,
denied there had been a cover-up or that the testing process had taken an
unreasonable length of time.
He said the original tests had been "revisited" as the science surrounding ISA
continued to develop.
He added: "ISA is fairly new so testing for it is still evolving. Our scientists
got more skilled in testing methods and so were able to pick up nuances as time
went on and read the data more effectively than in the past.
"As soon as there was conclusive evidence, it was put into the public domain.
Nothing could have been done earlier."
Ministers have announced a review of measures to control ISA, which has been
confirmed at 11 fish farms and suspected at a further 24 since the outbreak.
- Nov 29
Bobby Rogerson
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