Tag Archives: PRV-1

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

70% of the fish farms sampled had PRV-1, study finds

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A new study published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, states that 70% of the samples taken from 56 fish farms had PRV-1.

One of the co-authors is independent biologist Alexandra Morton, who explained, “The study was my concept and I funded a lot of the analysis and did a lot of the sampling myself. It was truly collaborative with Clayoquot Action sampling the Farms in Clayoquot Sound. An extraordinary man, Dr. Neil Fraser from Powell River got in his speed boat and went to the central coast. The Wild Fish Conservancy down in Washington State, sampled farms there. So it was  a sustained effort by a lot of people, and then Dr. Gideon Mordecai did the analysis of the relationship between the different strains that we picked up.”

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Rivers & Oceans

Pro Fish farm scientists respond through Globe and Mail

On Friday, May 27, a group of pro-fish farm scientists responded to recent testimonies before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans through an opinion article in the Globe and Mail. 

Four of the authors are from British Columbia. 

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Rivers & Oceans

B.C. fish farms cultivate increased risks for wild salmon, new studies show

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Pacific salmon are likely exposed to increased risks from pathogens concentrated in fish farms on the West Coast, two new scientific studies indicate. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Geneticist testifies to DFO’s failure to protect wild salmon from PRV

(Click here to access other presentations taken from the Committee.)

In the first of a series of posts gleaned from the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, a top UBC geneticist testifies on DFO’s failure to follow up on the findings of its own scientists and those from the international community, regarding the threat that Piscine Orthoreovirus or PRV  poses to the wild salmon population. The following audio is taken from the testimony that Dr Gideon Mordecai gave on Thursday, May 5, 2022. 

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