Whirling disease – From the Archive A


£40,000-worth of fi sh destroyed


GLOUCESTER- SHIRE fi ngerling producer who slaughtered his


stock and disinfected every inch of his farm following confi rmati on of whirling disease has a message for table trout producers. At Ampney Trout Farm near Cirencester, it is ‘business as usual’, he said.


Mr Tim Small expects


to have fi ve million fi ngerlings available from early April. And aft er the mammoth disinfecti on operati on, he reckons they could be a safer buy than fi sh from farms on which the disease has not been confi rmed. Whirling disease


was confi rmed at Ampney Trout Farm last autumn and an in- fected-area order was placed on the farm in early October. To be allowed to sell fi nger- lings again, Mr Small had to destroy all fi sh on the farm, including


brood stock.


Destroyed The disease was


confi rmed in a tank of fi sh which had been bought in, he said. Tests on all other fi sh on the farm showed them to be clear. Nev- ertheless, the farm’s enti re stock of fi sh had to be destroyed. He esti mated the


total loss at Ampney Trout Farm at £35,000 to £40,000, including brood fi sh. And the disease outbreak will incur an ‘on-going’ loss over three years while brood stocks are re-es- tablished. Unti l then around seven million eggs a year will have to be bought in.


Mr Small said a great


deal of bureaucracy dogged the disinfecti on operati on. Although disinfecti on took only two days, the associat- ed red tape took three months to get through The Thames Water Authority provided in-


valuable help at a cost. The help included the provision of manpower and equipment, as well as advice on such matt ers as disposal, he said. But there was a need for a specialist professional fi sh farm disinfecti on service. Following the drain-


ing of ponds, Mr Small and his staff disinfected the farm with a causti c soda soluti on. The soluti on was applied from watering cans, and every square inch of the farm site had to be covered. The winter’s cold


weather assisted the disinfecti on process. The parasite spores are destroyed at tempera- tures of minus 18 deg C and below, he said. For six consecuti ve nights temperatures at the Ampney Trout Farm site fell as low as minus 23 deg C. Fingerling producti on


at the farm has not been aff ected by the whirling disease out- break. The fi rst eggs of the new season were taken in at the end of November. Disinfecti on had to


be completed before the fi rst fry swam up and started feeding. The job was completed with two days to spare. Fingerlings will be


available as usual dur- ing the coming season. Mr Small has been


Above: Mr Tim Small: ‘Business as usual’ 58


able to identi fy one in- direct benefi t from the appearance of whirling disease and the farm’s subsequent disinfec- ti on. He is now able to meet the requirements


da“Although disinfecti on took only two ”


of the Ministry of Agriculture’s certi fi ca- ti on scheme, he says. Before the disease out- break he would have been unable to meet the requirements. Now the enti re farm


has been cleared and sterilised. Fish in the Ampney brook upstream of the farm have also been cleared. Since the site is at the head of the river there were no wild fi sh upstream.


Mr Small is less


happy about insurance arrangements for the disease. Insurance covers the direct loss of fi sh from disease, he says. But it does not cover fi sh which are slaughtered voluntarily by the farmer. All stock aff ected by whirling disease has to


be destroyed before the fi sh farmer can start selling live fi sh again. Although slaugh- ter is not compulsory, the producer of fry and fi ngerlings has, in eff ect, to destroy his stock. Because he chooses


to kill his fi sh they are not covered by insur- ance. The disease itself may not cause the death of the fi sh. Mr Small said future


nati onal strategies to deal with whirling disease depended on whether it was endemic or not. At the moment, there were disagreements among experts on whether or not the disease was endemic. He suggested some


form of dual status for the disease should


ys, the associated red tape took three months to get through


it be shown to be endemic in UK waters. When the disease caused clinical symp- toms it could remain noti fi able, he said. Where the parasite caused no disease it could be made non-no- ti fi able. The mere dropping


of the disease from the list of noti fi able diseases would provide no long-term soluti on in itself. Unti l now Mr Small


has had hatchery capacity to produce about fi ve million fi n- gerlings a year. A new hatchery now nearing completi on will enable him to double output. The spring supplying


the hatcheries produc- es 25 million gallons a day for nine months of the year. FF


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