Monday, September 21, 2009

This is the first I've heard of fish vaccination

Chile's farmed salmon industry took a big hit with an outbreak of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) very recently, cutting down to size the world's second-largest farmed salmon industry (after Norway). The industry in Chile has taken criticism for not being well-managed and being somewhat unsanitary; this virus may cause them to rethink and redo their practices. To recover, one of the things they're doing is vaccinating fingerlings:

Chile Vaccinates Salmon Against Deadly Virus

Here's the numbers:

"We hope to vaccinate between 10 and 12 million fish over the next six months, Alejandro Pino, a manager at the Recalcine pharmaceutical company which manufactures the drug, told AFP.

He said the vaccination programme, along with stepped up oversight of fisheries, was needed to save the once-thriving salmon industry, a source of millions of dollars each year in revenue.


Now, I wondered, is that feasible? So I looked up a fish vaccination company:

Eurofish Fish Vaccination Services

and they say, regarding how fast they can do this:

"Eurofish normally attend sites as a team of between 4 and 6 operatives, each capable of vaccinating 2000 fish per hour, giving an optimum capacity of 120,000 fish per day for a normal working day of 12 hours. Teams can be tailored to meet clients’ requirements - the company can, for example, provide the service of anaesthetising the fish, in which case a team of up to 7 personnel could attend the site."

OK, so 10 million/120,000 fish vaccinated per day = 83 days. 83/5 = 16.6. So at optimum speed, they could get this done in a little over four months.

Count me impressed. I'd like to see a video of how each operative vaccinates 2000 fish an hour, which is a remarkable 33 fish stuck a minute. I can barely eat 33 potato chips a minute.

Here's what the job looks like:

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