“They call me grandfather fish,” laughs Gerry Johnson. “Fish had started to evolve as a farmed species in Canada, and AVC was advertising for someone to set up its aquatic side. I applied for it and got the job,” says the veterinary pathologist who is now chair of AVC’s Department of Pathology and Microbiology.
He remembers arriving at AVC in 1986. “There were a bunch of holes in the ground and a roof over the top, and that was about it for aquatics. But the engineers had listened to all the different interest groups, and once we got the place equipped and operational we found we had landed in probably the best facility in the world at the time. We could run four seasons of temperature in a single experiment in those tanks. We had the potential to do things that couldn’t be done elsewhere and it’s been evolving ever since.
“It was a wide open field with an opportunity to do what needed to be done for the aquaculture industry. Our objective was to put veterinary medicine into aquaculture because that wasn’t the typical mode in this country. Now, AVC is known around the globe. And despite the competition that has grown since, I think if you ask people, we are still a—if not the—leader in aquatic veterinary medicine, especially when it comes to temperate water species, both fish and shellfish. On a College basis we’re probably the most well-rounded and the most diverse aquatic program anywhere in veterinary medicine, spanning everything from pathology to clinical medicine and from pharmacology to basic research.”
Originally from Kenora, Ontario, Johnson spent large parts of his childhood on a commercial fishing boat on a freshwater lake north of there. “I was usually scrubbing the hull after we were docked. I also worked through high school in a riding stable. I was in the last of the five-year veterinary programs at Guelph, straight out of high school.”
Johnson began his career in veterinary practice. He then returned to school and studied veterinary pathology, and worked for the province of Alberta for almost 12 years. “When I arrived in Edmonton,” he says, “I started doing the general tour of mammalian diagnostic pathology, but as time went on I started doing more administrative work. I also went to Stirling in Scotland to do veterinary aquatic studies and on my return started up a fish health lab. When I hit 40, I started looking for a change. I had my tentacles out—and AVC is where I landed.”
A question about his research projects brings a lengthy pause, followed by a smile. “I’ll have to look at my CV,” he jokes. “If I had stuck to just my own research, the College wouldn’t have made as much progress towards its reputation in aquatics. So almost all my research, being a pathologist, is collaborative, with graduate and post-doc students. I have a lot of industry interactions and contacts.” Johnson is a Board-certified specialist in veterinary pathology with a specific focus on the diseases and production-limiting problems of farmed fish and shellfish.
He conducted the first in vivo transmission trials to prove that haemorrhagic kidney syndrome—eventually proven to be the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV)—was infectious. “That trial changed our diagnostic focus from toxic to infectious, followed by the isolation of ISAV. Later, following a diagnostic consultation, the first specimens
arrived and resulted in AVC’s Dr. Fred Kibenge discovering the first case of ISAV in Chile.
“I was also the only non-government person on the original task force in the late 80s investigating domoic acid in PEI mussels, which caused a number of deaths. We had been looking at food sources for these mussels and in conjunction with Dr. Louis Hanic of UPEI found that an algal bloom caused by Pseudo-nitzschia was the culprit. Some strains of it were toxic. At that time nobody in the world knew that. I spent New Year’s Eve 1987 extracting organs from mussels for testing. Within weeks we discovered that the domoic acid was gone. The algae had died off because of the ice cover and, we found, mussels could, and did, depurate [cleanse] the domoic acid, given clean water. Nobody knew that either.
“Since that time, I have taken on several industry lead requests, such as one to determine the reproductive cycle and capacity of the tunicate Styela clavis currently affecting the PEI mussel industry.”
Other areas of research involve branching out into social policy working with the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies in Halifax. The group is looking at regulatory problems and comparing them around the globe, to try and influence change in bureaucracies and the public.
His expertise has also been solicited by pharmaceutical companies, industry associations, and insurance adjusters for aquaculture, as well as many legal firms.
“It’s been a blast,” he says. “I can’t say that I have ever had one specific research goal. I’ve always looked at how to be part of a solution. I have an objective when I’m facilitating the interactions between producer groups and research disciplines, and among individual people—that’s probably my strength, to define problems and find solutions.
“I never intended to be in a research environment, or an academic environment. I never intended to teach, which I love but didn’t start until I was 41. There’s been a lot of serendipity in my career. It is all about getting there. It’s the pathway you take getting there that is best remembered and most rewarding. As the saying goes, success to me isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.”
