A virus as lethal to salmon as bird flu is to poultry has been confirmed for the first time in wild fish in a remote area of Canada's west coast, two scientists said Monday.

Infectious Salmon Anaemia, or ISA, was confirmed in two of 48 young fish taken from an inland lake on the central Pacific coast of British Columbia, marine scientists Rick Routledge and Alexandra Morton told a news conference.

Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University, said ISA has an impact on animals similar to influenza, and compared its impact on salmon to the HINI virus that has plagued the global poultry industry.

There is no known threat to humans from the virus, they added.

The finding in Canada of ISA -- a disease researchers believe originated in Europe and which has been commonly spread on commercial Atlantic salmon eggs exported to fish farms elsewhere -- is explosive in the North American aquaculture industry.

"If these results are valid, this could be a threat to our business and the communities that rely on our productive industry," Stewart Hawthorn, of salmon farm operator Grieg Seafood, said in a statement.

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