Scientists Seek Remedies for Chile Salmon Industry Woes
Published: August 12, 2008
Source : El Mercurio / The Patagonia Times
Researchers may have a new weapon against infectious salmon anemia (ISA), the scourge of Chile’s salmon industry.
Chilean pharmaceutical company Corporación Farmacéutica Recalcine applied Wednesday for approval to conduct field tests for a new vaccine against the disease. If successful, the vaccine has the potential to staunch a plague that has wiped out 16 salmon-farming centers and led to hundreds of lay-offs in Chile’s southern regions in the last year. ISA poses a major threat to the profitability of Chile’s salmon industry, which last year raked in $2.2 billion.
“This is the first ISA vaccine specific to Chilean salmon stocks,” said Recalcine researcher Alejandro Weinstein. “We are seeking approval from the National Fishery Service (Sernapesca) to conduct field tests. Technically, we have developed the vaccine.”
Weinstein is the controlling partner of Recalcine, founded by his family 85 years ago. The vaccine development project began at the end of last year with the formation of a 10-member international team of animal virology experts.
Researchers developed the vaccine with the express purpose of thwarting the Chilean strain of the ISA virus. It differs from others on the global market that target Norwegian ISA outbreaks and don’t accommodate for important differences in the virus’s behavior in Chile. Furthermore, halting the spread of the disease in Chile requires accounting for local environmental conditions and production methods, according to Weinstein.
“Also, Chile has a huge epidemic of sea lice, which carries ISA. The realities of the problem in Chile and Norway just aren’t comparable,” Weinstein said. “If Sernapesca gives us the go-ahead to conduct field tests, we’ll be able to start by the end of the year. The real test is in out the water – not in tanks far away from the sea.”
To move forward, the initiative will require approval from the national Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) in addition to that of Sernapesca. The embattled salmon industry is eager to see the project move forward.
Recalcine has a proven track record in developing pharmaceuticals for the salmon industry: Its products include veterinary antibiotics, sea lice treatments and probiotic tablets that aid in the processing of salmon waste widely criticized for contaminating water and the sea floor near salmon cages. The company also has dealings with shrimp aquaculture in Ecuador, another industry that has come under fire for its environmental and social impacts.
Recalcine aims to create a new subsidiary exclusively dedicated to its efforts in the aquaculture sector. The spin-off of Farmacología Acuícola Veterinaria (Veterinary Aquaculture Pharmacology) would cleave the company’s veterinary research and development from its work in human medicines.
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