This is our way of understanding and implementing measures:
We are keeping a continuous focus on the health and wellbeing of our animals, safeguarded by our global team of aquatic animal health professionals. I like to say that our real boss is the animals we have in our production. If they don’t perform well, neither will we.
In order to be permitted to export live animals and our progeny, we have implemented a specific surveillance at our approved biosecure sites and compartments. This allows us to obtain free statuses for certain listed diseases like ISA and BKD.
Due to the design of our compartments, the risk of having an entire site closed down is highly reduced . The fact that we have several land-based sites also reduces the level of risk.
On our customer’s request, we offer a specific screening for relevant pathogens on the breeders used for the egg and fry production. For salmon, the industry standard is to use the germinal products, using ovarian fluid and milt for screening. This may serve as additional security to our general population screening.
Together with the dedicated production team, our global team of aquatic animal health professionals maintain fish health and welfare. The sites regularly conduct health controls and monitor closely in case of any events. We have developed specific fish health KPIs to follow the development over time and to identify areas of improvement.
Biosecurity is a fundamental criterion for a successful production and was in the top of our considerations when choosing a supplier of genetics to our projected facilities in Maryland, USA. In our opinion, Benchmark Genetics holds the highest levels of biosecurity and thereby an obvious choice for us.
