The Salaris parasite - a potential threat to UK fish stocks

摘要

AT the Aquaculture Today 2006 conference, held recently in Edinburgh, Dr Andrew Shinn from the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling gave a presentation on the parasite Gyrodactylus salaris and how it was detected in 1975 in Norway and developed into a threat for the aquaculture industry. He spoke of the huge threat that G. salaris poses in Norway to fish farms and wild fish, and the potential damage it could do if it found its way to British shores. Dr Shinn told the delegates thatin 1975, researchers in a Norwegian hatchery in the North of Norway noticed mortalities in some of their stocks. Over a period of years they saw a steep increase in occurrences of Gyrodactylus salaris in salmon in a nearby river. G. salaris has been found in 41 rivers and more that 40 fish farms in Norway, and the parasite has caused huge costs to the country's economy. He said: "Since the first reports of G. salaris in Norway in 1975, it has been estimated that G. salaris has cost the Norwegian economyin excess of ￡300 million, and in fact it's even been estimated that it is probably number two behind acid rain, just to put it into the scheme of environmental concerns." G. salaris was made a notifiable disease in Norway in 1983 and in 1988 in the UK, he went on to say.