SANTIAGO, Chile (February 16, 2009) – For the third time in less than a year, the prestigious New York Times has turned its attention to Chile’s struggling farmed salmon industry, placing renewed focus on its alleged overuse of antibiotics and sparking a war of words between environmental groups and SalmonChile, the industry trade association.
The article, entitled “Chile Takes Steps To Rehabilitate Its Lucrative Salmon Industry,” explains how the once-booming industry now finds itself now in the midst of a prolonged slide that was first triggered in 2007 by a yet-to-be-contained outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA). A highly contagious virus, ISA can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans.
ISA isn’t the only problem plaguing the US$2.2 billion industry, according to the New York Times. The article, published Feb. 4, suggests that the industry’s use of pesticides and antibiotics is beginning to draw critical attention from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which last April conducted a series of on-site inspections of Chilean salmon companies (PT, April 17, 2008).
Read The Patagonia Times story in full