RICHMOND, ME – Private fish health labs are few and far between here in the US, so I’d like to profile a couple of these valuable businesses in 2015. In this issue we’ll look at Kennebec River Biosciences Inc. (KRB), a growing lab that already serves over 500 fish farmers and fisheries managers in the US, Canada, and elsewhere in the world.
Started in 1996 as Micro Technologies Inc. but renamed in 2011, KRB has expanded its offerings well beyond certification, diagnostic, and veterinary services for North America’s salmon aquaculture industry, which was its original focus.
As Vice President and COO Dr. Cem Giray put it, “KRB now works with close to 300 finfish, molluscan, crustacean, and other aquatic species, performs contract research and other client-based services such as pathogen challenge trials, and manufactures custom vaccines tailored to your facility’s emerging needs.”
One of KRB’s new services is assisting clients when they need to move stocks of aquatic animals across borders. The company is approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to perform export testing for 16 different “listed” aquatic pathogens, one of which is Koi Herpes Virus, a nemesis of koi producers and hobbyists. This testing helps producers obtain aquatic animal export health certificate endorsements from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
More evidence of KRB’s qualifications is that only two other laboratories currently are approved by the USDA to conduct testing for Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus. ISA is a disease that has cost the salmon farming industry dearly here in the Northeast, as well as in Canada, Norway, Scotland, and Chile…
…read the rest and much, much more in Issue 1, 2015 of Fish Farming News.
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