P.E.I. hatchery says it's produced 1st MSX-resistant oyster seed in Canada
CBC
A hatchery in western Prince Edward Island says it has produced the first batch of MSX-resistant oyster seed in the country, but at least one expert says it's still too early to determine those results.
The Bideford Shellfish Hatchery is located in the heart of P.E.I.'s wild oyster production region, which has been hit hard by the parasite.
Multinuclear sphere X, or MSX, is harmless to humans but can be deadly to oysters. Since it was first detected in Island waters in July 2024, it has devastated stocks in some areas, including the famed Bedeque Bay.
The Bideford hatchery's new batch of seed — essentially young oyster larvae that are used to start new beds or reefs — have a connection to Bedeque Bay. It's one of the places where oysters were collected for the hatchery's breeding program.
Guy Perry, a geneticist and the hatchery's manager, calls the seed "survivors" — and the theory is that they are the best hope for producing MSX-resistant oysters.
"Our expectation is they should have the most resistance of any [oysters] on the Island, or even in Atlantic Canada," Perry said.
"Essentially, the sites we picked them from have the most infected status of any of the sites currently in Bedeque Bay."
Perry said he's basing resistance on the oysters' projected rate of survival, which he estimates to be in the 70 per cent range for the hatchery's new seed.
The Bideford breeding program is the same type of system used on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States after MSX was discovered there decades ago. Perry said seed in that area have shown 89 per cent resistance.
"Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, Long Island Sound, they all went exactly the same way where they took survivors of outbreaks and bred them into the system to produce a stock line."
The hatchery is located in the Bideford River Marine Centre.
It was originally a federal government research station focused on the oyster industry before it was transferred to the Lennox Island Development Corporation in 2014.
It relaunched it as a hatchery a few years later.
Adrian Desbarats is an aquaculture business development advisor with Ulnooweg, a not-for-profit that supports Indigenous fisheries initiatives. He's been an adviser to the Bideford hatchery since 2015.
The decades-long problem of derelict properties plaguing Edmonton is now turning a corner, according to one city councillor and a long-time resident of the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood.
The policy that allows faith-based health-care providers to ban medical assistance in dying in their facilities is being tested now in B.C. Supreme Court. The plaintiffs want to see the policy struck down so patients don't have to transfer to another facility in the final moments of their lives.
Black History Month starts Feb. 1, a time used to honour the contributions, heritage and legacy of Black people in Canada.
A blast of Arctic air is pushing the temperatures even further down across southwestern Ontario on Friday — including in Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton.
Daniel Cruz was browsing displays of trading cards in Calgary’s ShoeBox Games & Cafe last October when he saw two people walk in, both dressed in black and sporting skull face paint — not an unusual sight on Halloween.
More Albertans are waiting longer than clinically recommended for critical cardiac and cancer surgeries, sparking concern among health experts and calls for urgent action.
There have been four collisions involving transport trucks in northwestern Ontario in three days, prompting renewed calls for action to address ongoing safety concerns along Highway 11-17.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives will huddle behind closed doors at a policy convention this weekend as some Tories question the party’s direction after nearly eight years in power.
The father of a three-year-old girl that was killed after being struck by a vehicle in Cambridge in mid-December says recent charges laid to the driver bring little comfort and relief.
The start of kindergarten can be a time of excitement or anxiety for parents, guardians and children — and also for Prince Edward Island's education officials as they try to staff schools appropriately.
Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation (NNC)’s proposed hydro project is facing some backlash in Pangnirtung.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will take to the stage Friday for what could be one of the most important speeches of his political career as he tries to convince delegates at the party's Calgary convention to keep him in the job.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.