The guy with the trout farm the state put out of business is a welder, he bought the trout farm about 15 years ago as an addition to his income. He told me he makes 10 to 12 grand on the trout he raised, the state required testing would have cost him 8 grand.
He didn't need to be a math major to figure it out.
Sad but true. Actually if APHIS would have had it's way it may have been triple that cost. They wanted us to not only test fish for VHS they wanted us to test them several times a year if the water source was an "Open source." They even wanted to have a vet come out AGAIN to observe every single load of fish that was leaving the farm even though they had been previously tested VHS free. One trout farmer I know estimated that his annual health costs would have been something like $30,000! Fortunately enough fish farmers spoke up and contacted their congressmen and it's been put on hold.
