Exposed: Genetically-modified salmon found to be contaminated with infectious salmon anemia

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: GM salmon, anemia, infections

(NaturalNews) As the US federal government continues to evaluate whether or not to approve AquaBounty's genetically-modified (GM) "AquAdvantage" salmon, Canada's Cohen Commission (CC), a group established by the nation's government to track the decline of Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River, has announced some shocking information. According to a recent report, AquAdvantage being raised at a land-based, isolated site on Prince Edward Island have been found to be contaminated with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a serious viral disease that affects Atlantic salmon.

Catherine Stewart from the Living Oceans Society and Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform recently gave an interview in which she explained the mysterious ISA discovery in the "Frankenfish." According to the CC report, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) back in 2009 that there had been an outbreak of ISA at the Prince Edward Island facility raising AquAdvantage salmon.

"I think we have to ask the question, 'How did this get into this facility?' This is a land-based, closed-tank system that's raising these genetically-engineered fish," said Stewart. "It could only have come through the eggs or the smolts, or through water that the facility pumps from the bay into their facility."

AquaBounty is the same company, of course, that has been trying to ramrod US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its highly-allergenic AquAdvantage Frankenfish without so much as a shred of independent, legitimate scientific evidence proving that the imitation fish is safe for humans and the environment, or that it will not reproduce and destroy stocks of wild salmon all over the world (https://www.naturalnews.com/GM_salmon.html).

Meanwhile, this Prince Edward Island scandal clearly illustrates that AquaBounty is incapable of even protecting its own protected stocks of fish from disease, let alone protect the world's oceans from contamination. If the company cannot even maintain its own disease-free, protected environment, how can it be trusted not to release GM fish and their traits into the wild?

"Was AquaBounty getting [its] eggs from Norway, Scotland, and were these ISA-infected eggs? We don't know," added Stewart. "And if [AquaBounty] had that disease in its facility, what's happening to the water they are dumping into the bay? What percentage of the water they use in this facility is recirculated, and what percentage goes out as effluent into the receiving waters, and does that effluent water contain the ISA virus? Are they treating the effluent? Again, we don't know."

Be sure to watch the entire interview with Stewart at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVh4TRey0OE