Darnley Basin is 5th P.E.I. waterway to test positive for oyster disease, says CFIA
CBC
Another waterway on Prince Edward Island has now tested positive for the presence of a disease that affects oysters, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says.
In an interview with CBC's Steve Bruce on Tuesday, the CFIA's incident commander Kathy Brewer-Dalton said a primary control zone has been put in place in Darnley Basin, on P.E.I.'s North Shore.
It's the fifth area on the Island to yield positive test results for the presence multinuclear sphere X, or MSX, in the past six weeks.
Brewer-Dalton said one other river near Alaska, in western P.E.I., has also returned a presumptive positive test result for MSX that will need to be confirmed through DNA sequencing in the coming days.
"We do have presumptive positives in the Percival River area, so those have been sent off for sequencing and we're awaiting those results," she said. "So depending on the results of that sequencing there may be an additional PCZ, or primary control zone, put in place."
MSX was first detected in Bedeque Bay on July 11, but it has since been confirmed in several areas throughout the province.
While harmless to humans, MSX can cause mortality of 80 to 90 per cent when it strikes a new population of oysters.
The CFIA puts primary control zones in place to control the movement of oysters and equipment in and out of the affected areas. Oysters can still be harvested and sent to market with a permit from the agency.
The disease comes with a lot of uncertainty for P.E.I.'s multimillion-dollar oyster industry.
MSX wiped out oyster stocks in Chesapeake Bay, between Maryland and Delaware, in the 1950s. It had never been spotted north of Maine until 2002 when it was detected in Cape Breton — where it has affected the industry ever since.
"I cannot say enough about the industry members — the wild harvesters, the aquaculture producers and the processors. They have been committed to this response right off the get-go with the CFIA and that has made a huge difference in the strides that we've made over the last six weeks, so I really want to give them a lot of credit," Brewer-Dalton said.
She said the CFIA has issued around 120 permits for the movement of oysters to and from primary control zones to date.
Tusday, the federal government announced it would contribute up to $1 million over the next two years to "to support scientific research towards addressing knowledge gaps in our understanding of MSX."
Ottawa also announced that a science summit will happen this fall, which will gather experts and partners to discuss what is known about the disease, as well as identify priority areas for additional research.
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