EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Main Authors: Salmo Salar L. In, Muir Gheal Teo, Co. Galway
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.508.1363; http://www.marine.ie/nr/rdonlyres/3d8dad67-c831-4043-a95b-30cb7ded44fd/0/mehs14.pdf

In the early 1990’s pancreas disease (PD) was shown to be the most significant cause of mortality in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in Ireland. For the last several years PD was a sporadic and relatively minor cause of losses in Ireland. In 2002, PD re-emerged as a serious cause of mortality and production loss in Irish Atlantic salmon. In order to identify factors associated with this re-emergence of PD in Ireland, an in-depth epidemiological investigation was carried out on all marine sites. The period under investigation was from October 2001 until June 2003. In the previous two production cycles PD associated mortality on Irish farms was recorded as less than 10 % in all farms which experienced PD. Fifty-nine percent of marine sites containing 01 generation salmon experienced PD in 2002. The average PD associated mortality recorded on affected sites was 12 % with a range of 1 to 42%. PD commenced on most sites between March and October 2002. The average duration of a PD outbreak was 141 days (range 61-288). PD associated mortality was high in individual cages and on some individual farms and this was a similar pattern to that observed in 1990-94.