Seal Hunt: a focus for cardiac surgeons

Canadian Press, March 26, 2007

Magdalen Islands – Greek cardiac surgeons are interested in the plentiful supply of harp seals for heart-valve transplantation purposes.

In the Magdalen Islands, TAMASU, a company supplying harbour-seal products, yesterday announced a partnership agreement with Greek cardiac surgeons as part of a research and development project.

If the project achieves the desired results, this company from the Cap-aux-Meules area would have the exclusive right to supply the medical market with harp-seal heart valves.

The Director of cardiac surgery at the Medical Centre in Athens, Dr. Andreas Agathos, explains that research that he conducted some ten years ago on common seals from Nova Scotia showed that valves from the hearts of harbour seals are less likely to be rejected than mechanical valves. He explains that they are more resistant than valves from pigs or cows, which are commonly used in the medical field.

However, it will be another six months before we find out whether the experiment was a success and whether the way will then be open for an application to be made to permit transplantation of these valves into humans.

Bernard Guimont, the President of TAMASU, confidently predicts that such a break-through would make a major impact on the public image of the seal hunt. Last week, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) authorized the harvesting of 200 harp seals. The cost of the operation was to be shared between TAMASU and the hunter, Denis Éloquin.

Research will be conducted on the transplantation of pig valves in French, Swiss and Swedish laboratories.

Worldwide demand for mechanical valves and those of animal origin for medical transplantation purposes amounts to 300,000 per year, according to Dr. Agathos.

Biological valves apparently cost between $4,000 and $5,000 each.