HC Deb 29 October 1998 vol 318 cc223-4W
Mr. Levitt

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the outbreak of an anaemia virus in farmed salmon. [56160]

Mr. Macdonald

Infectious Salmon Anaemia was first confirmed at a site in Loch Nevis on 16 May 1998. Since then the disease has been confirmed on a further 9 sites, the latest on 18 September. Eleven further sites are also formally under suspicion. There are 340 sites in Scotland involved in fish farming.

Measures designed to eradicate the disease are being carried out in strict accordance with EC and domestic legislation. As part of that, movement restrictions have been imposed on fish farms within an area of 40 km surrounding the confirmed and suspected sites.

The original cause of the outbreak has not yet been established but inquiries are continuing. Rigorous testing and surveillance are also being maintained and my Department is in close contact with the European Commission and with the Norwegian authorities, who have longer experience of the disease.

The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food has been invited to consider the risks for human health. It noted that there is no current evidence of any fish virus causing disease in humans, and that the ISA virus is unable to replicate at human body temperatures. It concluded that there is currently no evidence that ISA poses a risk to human health. This is consistent with experience in Norway and Canada.

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