B.C. shellfish industry reeling from oyster-linked illnesses

VICTORIA A norovirus outbreak linked to people eating raw oysters from farms in south and central Baynes Sound has hurt B.C.’s shellfish industry, a growers’ association said Wednesday.

Federal officials closed four farms as a precaution after the outbreak began in early March.

Although the illness was traced to a limited geographic area, all B.C. growers have felt the effects of public health warnings, said Darlene Winterburn, executive director of the B.C. Shellfish Growers’ Association.

“The unfortunate reality is that there was some broad media that basically said, ‘Don’t eat B.C. oysters,’” she said. “Unfortunately, those sweeping comments had an impact on everybody in the industry. So we have a lot of farmers right now that are down 50 per cent in their sales.”

Winterburn said the warnings scared off restaurants, distributors and others.

One of the complicating factors is distributors and suppliers might have stored oysters received from the four affected farms before they closed, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control said in a statement last week.

“Recent illnesses have been linked to product served after the farms closed and ceased shipping product,” the centre said. “Restaurants and retailers must not distribute or serve oysters from these farms.”

The centre stressed that all other B.C. shellfish farms are open and that raw B.C. oysters continue to be available for purchase in restaurants and stores.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said last week the outbreak appears to be slowing.

The agency said 172 cases of gastrointestinal illness linked to eating oysters have been reported to date — 132 in B.C., 15 in Alberta and 25 in Ontario. People became sick from mid-March to mid-April.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week it’s also investigating a multi-state outbreak of norovirus illnesses linked to oysters from the same area of Baynes Sound.

Norovirus causes vomiting and diarrhea for up to three days and can lead to dehydration in the very young and elderly.