Canada: Scientists injected salmon with virus blamed by activists as coming from fish farms. Here’s what they found.

A new study on piscine orthreovirus (PRV) has lent credence to earlier findings that the virus poses a “very low risk” to British Columbia’s population of wild Pacific salmon and that they remain physically fit even when infected. In the latest study released Tuesday, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries say wild Pacific sockeye salmon injected with PRV in the nine-week experiment functioned normally, with their respiratory performance unaffected. “We saw little to no effect on sockeye salmon’s respiratory fitness after PRV-infection and minimal impacts on their ability to sustain the vigorous activity needed to migrate, catch prey and avoid predators,” said Dr Yangfan Zhang, a post-doctoral researcher in UBC’s faculty of land and food systems and the department of zoology, and the joint lead author of the study. PRV infects most farmed Atlantic salmon and just a small ...