Tag Archives: PRV in hatcheries

Rivers & Oceans

PRV1a in fish farms, an interview with Dr Gideon Mordecai

Editor’s note: In Dr Mordecai’s most recent study, the PRV-1a virus was reported beside fish farms in the Okisollo Channel and Raza Island. Wild salmon infected with that virus would have swam by neighbouring Cortes, Read and Quadra Islands on their way home to spawn. 

Dr Gideon Mordecai is a Research Associate with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. He is also the author of more than 20 scientific publications, the most recent of which reported the PRV1a virus was in 70% of the samples they studied from 56 fish farms.

Cortes Currents asked Dr. Mordecai,”Fish farms are claiming that BC’s PRV1 isn’t deadly for wild salmon. Is that true?” 

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Rivers & Oceans

PRV spreads from salmon farms to wild Chinook, study says

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“Our findings show that salmon farms are, indeed, a source of infection for wild fish. Viruses leave a genetic fingerprint. The genetic fingerprint shows that the same viruses that are on the farms are in the wild fish. All the evidence suggests that the virus is being transmitted from the farm to wild fish. I haven’t seen any evidence that says that’s not happening,” said Dr Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of a paper published in Science Advances last month.

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