Analyses carried out in the laboratories of the Highly Specialised Aquaculture and Biotechnology Service (SABE) of the ULPGC institute have shown that the fish have ‘lesions on their gills that have affected their respiratory capacity, limiting and preventing the exchange of oxygen from the water to the animals' bodies’
This set of scientific analyses rules out the possibility that these deaths are due to an infectious or parasitic cause
The aquaculture facilities of the ECOAQUA University Institute, belonging to the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), located next to the Taliarte pier, in the coastal area of the Gran Canaria municipality of Telde, have suffered in recent days from a mass fish mortality event similar to that which occurred recently at the marine breeding farms of the Aquanaria company, located next to Melenara beach, also in the aforementioned municipality. It is estimated that just over 5% of the total biomass of fish kept in these facilities, approximately 500 specimens, has died with symptoms identical to those presented by the fish of the aforementioned company.
Aquaculture facilities at the ECOAQUA Institute in Taliarte.
Specifically, Rafael Ginés Ruiz, an expert in aquaculture product quality at the Aquaculture Research Group (GIA) and coordinator of the aquaculture facilities at the ECOAQUA University Institute, states that the dead specimens show ‘lesions on the gills that have affected their respiratory capacity, limiting and preventing the exchange of oxygen from the water to the animals' bodies’.
In his words, "although at the macroscopic level there is already an irregular discolouration along the gill arches of the characteristic bright red colour shown by the gills of a healthy fish, microscopic analysis reveals a loss of epithelial architecture, with obvious hyperaemia as a compensatory action to the reduction in oxygen uptake, culminating in necrosis of the lamellae, rendering the function that would be expected of this tissue unviable."
Aquaculture facilities at the ECOAQUA Institute in Taliarte.
These are the conclusions reached after a series of analyses carried out in the laboratories of the Highly Specialised Aquaculture and Biotechnology Service (SABE) of the ECOAQUA University Institute of the ULPGC, which also ruled out an infectious or parasitic cause for these deaths.
According to these analyses, it has also been confirmed that the outbreak has ceased and that the rest of the fish at the ECOAQUA facilities are in good health, although they will continue to be observed and monitored.