Re: “Fish farms allied with government, activists say,” May 5.
I am disappointed that important information was not included in the article. It quotes one of the emails that I sent last summer to a salmon-farm veterinarian asking: “May I have permission to disclose information from the medical records about the two Mainstream [IHN] outbreaks?” The email was one of many included in a recent 300-page freedom-of-information release to the Wilderness Committee.
The article neglects to say that, as a veterinarian, I am prohibited by my professional code of ethics from releasing to the public information contained in confidential medical records — unless I have permission; this is comparable to a doctor or a lawyer prohibited from releasing confidential records.
The article also neglects to say that the freedom-of-information release contains several examples where I asked the salmon-farm veterinarians for permission to release confidential medical information. Every time I asked, permission was granted.
Finally, the article does not say that, even before I asked the salmon farmers for permission to share information publicly, I had already reported suspicion of IHN to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The CFIA follows international guidelines for disease confirmation and reports all findings publicly.
The public can be assured that because I have a good relationship with the salmon farmers, the IHN outbreaks in 2012 on salmon farms were quickly diagnosed and reported to the CFIA and to the public.
Gary D. Marty
Fish pathologist
B.C. Ministry of Agriculture
