The mass tilapia deaths have resurfaced in several fish farms on the Volta Lake, Kasapa News reports.
Dozens of tonnes of Tilapia have so far died and are being buried in the enclave. The affected farms include West Africa Fish Farm at Asikuma and Tropo farms.
Initial report received from an official with one of the state agencies who visited the affected farms said management of West Africa Fish Farm reported over 150 tonnes of the tilapia deaths so far.
The Manager of West Africa Fish Farm, Marc Towers confirmed the mortality to Kasapa News, but declined to give details on the quantity recorded so far.
According to him, the incident has been reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and has begun investigations at the affected farms.
He was however quick to add that all the dead fishes are being buried with mechanisms in place to ensure it is not smuggled onto the market .
The cause of the incident is not yet known.
This incident is happening barely two months after about six tones of Tilapia fish died at Fujian Fish Farm at Asutuare.
The strange incident was initially suspected to have been caused by poisonous contamination but the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development on November 20,2018 ruled out poisoning after laboratory investigations.
The Ministry said ,based on the diagnostic report received from various laboratories both home and abroad,“we are in a position to declare that products from the Fujian Farm and nearby farms pose no public health risk to the consuming public”
“Our fears of poisonous substances have been ruled out from the diagnostic reports received so far, the Ministry further added.
The Ministry revealed that, the report from’ Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and other labs in France and United Kingdom on incident at the Fujian farms and other farms including Maleka and Triton Fish Farms at Dodi-Asantekrom corroborated that the mass fish kills were rather caused by foreign matter or the environment.
The laboratory identified the presence of Streptococcus agalacitae as possible cause of death.
The Streptococcus spp infection is known to have long history of causing deaths in fish farms in the country but are always controlled by vaccines.
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Kasapa fm
