Outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia Confirmed in Canada

Half million salmon to be destroyed due to infectious salmon anemia

An outbreak of infectious salmon anemia at a fish farm near Conne River in Newfoundland and Labrador has been confirmed by Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The operators, Gray Aqua Group, have been ordered to destroy more than 450,000 salmon. They claim the virus is being contained to one site.

In March, CFIA ordered a Nova Scotia fish farm outside Shelburne Harbour to destroy hundreds of thousands of salmon following a similar outbreak.

Last month, another outbreak was suspected in Nova Scotia, but the tests were said to be ‘inconclusive.’

“Outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia in New Brunswick in the late 1990s dealt a blow to the aquaculture industry there at the time and the federal government provided tens of millions of dollars in compensation,” said a report.

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

• U.S. Corn Belt.  Drought and heat wave are affecting production of grain crops in the U.S. Corn Belt. Iowa and Illinois, which produce about 35% of the U.S. corn and soybeans, are particularly hard hit.
  • Drought conditions, have intensified since last week across the U.S. (see comparison map below) and already caused irrevocable damage to crops in southern Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
  • “By Sunday or Monday, if we don’t get rain here, we will be losing anywhere between 7 to 9 percent of our yield potential,” said Roger Elmore, corn agronomist at Iowa State University in Ames. “If it drags on into next week, it is going to be worse.”
  • Abnormally Dry and Drought Conditions (D0 – D4) currently prevail in 76.33% of the contiguous United States, the largest area than at any other time since the U.S. Drought Monitor began more than 12 years ago.

U.S. Drought Map. Released July 5, 2012

‘Farming in Hell’

• As of July 1, crops were in the worst condition since 1988, as the Midwest heat wave last week set or tied nearly 1,100 temperature records.
• “The drought is much worse than last year and approaching the 1988 disaster. There are crops that won’t make it. The dairy and livestock industries are going to get hit very hard. People are just beginning to realize the depth of the problem,” according to the CEO of Rochester,  Prairie Mills Products LLC, an Indiana-based grain processor.
• The persistent drought has hit plants during the most vulnerable time in their growing cycle, killing their pollen.
• “Corn yields were falling five bushels a day during the past week” in the worst-affected parts of the Midwest, said Fred Below, a plant biologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana. “You couldn’t choreograph worse weather conditions for pollination. It’s like farming in hell.”

Krasnodar region, Russia.

• At least 171 lives have been lost in the devastating flooding and landslides in in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, reported RT.
  • 17 others have been reported as missing.
  • “Some 584 people, 83 children among them, have sought medical aid following the flood. Medics have hospitalized 159 people, including sixteen children.”
  • At least 3,000 have been evacuated.
  • About 35,000 people have been affected by the disaster.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

If you’re flying to Beijing for the Olympics …

Make sure you sample the barreled water

In China’s southwestern province of Guizhou, polluted barreled water has made more than 200 ill. The victims feel ill with hepatitis A.

“The source of the water was heavily polluted and its production lacked strict sterilization,” according to Beijing News. News Report

According to a report, about half the water used in coolers in the Olympics host city could be tainted.

Hep A: An acute infectious disease of the liver

Hepatitis A, (formerly known as infectious hepatitis), is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by Hepatitis A virus, which is most commonly transmitted by the fecal-oral route via contaminated food or drinking water. Every year, approximately 10 million people worldwide are infected with the virus. The time between infection and the appearance of the symptoms, (the incubation period), is between two and six weeks and the average incubation period is 28 days.

Electron micrograph of hepatitis A virions. Source: CDC

In developing countries, and in regions with poor hygiene standards, the incidence of infection with this virus approaches 100% and the illness is usually contracted in early childhood. Hepatitis A infection causes no clinical signs and symptoms in over 90% of these children and since the infection confers lifelong immunity, the disease is of no special significance to the indigenous population. In Europe, the United States and other industrialised countries, on the other hand, the infection is contracted primarily by susceptible young adults, most of whom are infected with the virus during trips to countries with a high incidence of the disease. (Source: Wikipedia)