Prince Edward Island | The parasite that threatens oysters has spread

(Charlottetown) A federal official has confirmed that a parasite threatening Prince Edward Island’s world-famous oyster industry has likely spread to the majority of the province’s bays and rivers.


Kathy Brewer-Dalton, director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told a provincial legislative committee Thursday that testing in the island’s waterways was not yet complete.

She says, however, that the widespread spread of the MSX parasite was not a big surprise, given previous scientific studies.

However, the agency’s regional veterinarian, Danielle Williams, says that when MSX was first detected in July in Badeque Bay, she was hopeful the disease could be contained.

Those hopes were dashed when authorities began detecting MSX in other places, including in a remote waterway in Badeque Bay, where oysters were already dying from the disease.

Both officials stressed that the full effects of the parasite remain unknown, because the disease and how it spreads are not well understood.

Mme Williams says the island’s wild and farmed oysters have not yet seen a “widespread spike in mortality,” but that could change in the coming months and years.


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