SRS in Chile: What El Niño Could Mean for Disease Risk

Salmon Rickettsial Septicemia, also known as Prickely Rickettsiosis, affects Atlantic salmon, coho salmon, and rainbow trout.

It was first discovered in the late '80s during a mortality outbreak in coho salmon within Chile, where approximately one point five million fish died, leading to an economic impact of roughly ten million USD.

By the next year in 1990, the disease was also found in Atlantic salmon, with some reported mortality figures as high as ninety percent and leading to an economic impact of roughly fifty million dollars by the mid-1990s.

To date, the disease has an estimated impact of over seven hundred million dollars in annual losses, and it accounts for the most infectious disease-related mortalities across the Chilean industry.

The disease itself has also been reported in other farming countries like Norway, Canada, and Scotland, but at a much lower rate and impact.

So with that much impact, my next reasonable question is why? What makes this particular bacterium so challenging to combat? Well, it comes down to the bacteria itself.