ISA doesn’t affect humans, but the effect it could have on Scottish salmon stocks could be devastating. Scotland is the world’s third largest producer of Atlantic salmon, with sales of about £300m a year worldwide. The industry supports 8,500 jobs north of the Border.
A previous outbreak of ISA on Shetland in 1998 and 1999 led to the loss of 200 jobs, as was said to have cost the industry £100m.
Mike Russell, the Scottish environment minister, promised that lessons had been learned from the outbreak a decade ago, and said these would be “vigorously applied”.
Tavish Scott, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and Shetland MSP, said he recalled the “enormous financial problems” caused by the outbreak 10 years ago, but said the industry had changed a lot since then.
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