ISA suspected at Benchmark facility – but in just one fish

Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) is suspected at a Benchmark Genetics facility in Northern Norway – but so far only a single fish seems to be affected.

The site in Salten is the most advanced land-based facility for production of salmon ova in the world.

The attractively located facility (pictured) is designed to hold the entire life cycle of broodstock on land, including all life stages — from egg to final mature broodfish.

It is run on three different systems: RAS, re-use and flow-through – depending on the life stages and if the fish is kept its entire life on land or only partly.

Benchmark Genetics was informed of a possible discovery by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority yesterday.

The tank, which has a fish group of 628 breeding fish, is an isolated independent epidemiological unit with a separate water system, its own equipment for rearing and its own dead fish collector.

The authority said the parent fish in the relevant isolated tank has been quarantined and will be destroyed. The roe from the individual who tested positive was also routinely destroyed.

Benchmark said it actively collaborates with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to maintain a high level of biosecurity at the plant.

There is already an established routine from January 2023 where all roe is screened for the ISA virus before delivery to ensure that pathogens are not transferred to customers.

“Benchmark Genetics Salten therefore carries out screening of milk, roe fluid and organs (heart and kidney) from all breeding fish that are hatched as well as dead fish from all tanks on the site,” a company press release said.

It added: “The screening procedure that Benchmark uses is the strictest and most sensitive available, to ensure that the facility has a particularly high level of biosecurity.

“Such a sampling regime ensures that we uncover isolated incidents as early as possible, which in turn contributes to us being able to take measures and ensure that the consequences are very limited both for our customers, our operations and for the fish welfare in the facility.”