Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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216. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 313 of 15 April 2015, if he will indicate the unexpected health challenge to the stocks in 2012, and the technologies and techniques he stated the salmon industry has developed to deal with the health challenges. [17612/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The unexpected health challenge to the stock in 2012 was caused by a bloom of a naturally occurring single celled marine amoeba organism. This organism which is not a pathogen as such caused severe irritation to the gills of the farmed fish concerned. There were severe stock losses of the smaller sized fish as a result. This phenomenon had been observed previously in 1999 in Ireland but had not been seen in the interim.

This phenomenon has also been evident in other jurisdictions and, in Australia, a treatment technique was developed which involved immersing the affected stock in freshwater for a short period. The fresh water kills and removes the amoeba by osmoregulatory stress on the organism but the salmon remain unaffected and are effectively ‘cured’ by the treatment.

This treatment is now being used by Irish operators to deal successfully with the problem. It should be noted that this condition, known as Amoebic Gill Disease or AGD has no implications whatsoever for human health or for the health status of any wild stocks of fish.