Can hatchery diseases be passed onto wild fish?
Yes, but most fish health specialists and regulators believe that this does not pose a serious risk for wild fish for at least these two reasons: First, in many countries including and especially the U.W., there are rigorous fish health and fish movement regulations designed to ensure that serious diseases are not transported from one region to another. So wild fish will not be exposed to any diseases that they are not already exposed to in the wild. Second, domestic fish broodstock are routinely screened for disease, so that larval fish starting out in the hatchery are free of disease. If disease occurs subsequently, therefore, it will almost always have entered from the hatchery’s water source and have come from wild fish that live there. As with all disease, however, both animal and human, there is no room for complacency and rigid adherence to fish health protocols is an integral part normal hatchery procedure. Much has been written about fish parasites in British Columbia net pens
