The National Service for Food Health and Quality (Senasa) has declared the reservoir Alicurá (provinces of Rio Negro and Neuquén) a 'Zone Free of Salmonid Diseases'. The next step will be to seek international recognition of this water as free of conditions that affect trout and salmon. 

 

The status achieved at national level was reported last May by the World Organization for Animal Health (formerly the International Organization of Epizootics). 

 

The Alicurá reservoir is a lake of the Limay River basin, and is where most of the production of trout takes place in the country, reports La Mañana Neuquén. 

 

Since 2006, when Senasa technicians began an intensive program of active surveillance with the Interjurisdictional Basin Authority (AIC) and the two Patagonian provinces, it was possible to study the aquatic health of much of the Limay basin and specifically, the Alicurá reservoir.

 

This week, the director of Sanitary Control of the National Directorate of Animal Health, Mariano Ramos, and the general coordinator of Senasa in Northern Patagonia, Ricardo Sanchez, explained to technicians and officials from Río Negro and Neuquén the development of studies, diagnoses and following-up of samples of salmonids and wild species. 

 

These investigations have revealed the absence of the seven major diseases affecting rainbow trout. Five of these illnesses are viral and two are bacterial types.

 

The Organisation has published, and made available to Member States, studies showing the health of fish resources in the Argentine reservoir. 

 

This certification gives the resource an added value and export trade opportunities.