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Shellfish crisis continues with no end in sight

Mar 29, 2017 | 5:20 PM

NANAIMO — Numerous questions remain into how oysters from Vancouver Island were tainted, months after the initial contamination.

Darlene Winterburn, executive director of the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association, said oyster farmers have done what they can, including some voluntarily shutting down their operations, but it hasn’t been enough.

“They’ve unfortunately gotten to the point where there’s been some layoffs, belts have been tightened and people are looking at ways to keep their staff employed as best they can, but that’s a difficult thing to do when there’s no income,” she said.

She said the norovirus affecting oysters has devastated the industry and the market isn’t as receptive as it used to be.

Many farmers have continued to harvest and kept their farms running to quickly get back on track once the outbreak is over, but Winterburn said they have no idea when the crisis will pass.

Dr. Eleni Galanis, a physician epidemiologist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, explained the norovirus, which is a very specific strain of virus such as the one which causes influenza, is usually transmitted person to person through contaminated stool.

She said human sewage likely got into the water, which was then filtered by the oysters and eaten by humans, making them sick.

At the moment, Galanis said the B.C. CDC haven’t located where the sewage entered the water and are trying to narrow down the source of the virus by tracking the food eaten by people who are sick.

“We’re learning as we go,” Galanis said.

A virus like this is rare for the winter. Galanis said the last time they saw a similar outbreak was in 2004.

 

spencer.sterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit