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Carp Virus Murray-Darling System...... Australia


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Scary, yes but it could have an interesting positive outcome for others elsewhere.

 

Firstly, if the fish are causing as much damage as is being reported to the local ecology, then the local government has to act in some way. Imagine if this was back here and the invasive species was topmouth gudgeon or Japanese Knotweed to name a couple of current threats we currently face. For both of these, we are looking at several ways of tackling them including, with Japanese Knotweed, the release of Japanese bugs that feed exclusively on the Japanese Knotweed. How is this any different to the Australian government releasing KHV?

 

Secondly, I am pretty sure that when there have been outbreaks here of KHV, there have been survivors of the virus, just like there have been survivors of ebola in Africa. The net effect of this could result in a population of Carp that is immune to KHV, purely down to the numbers involved. This population could then be a source population that we could use to populate local waters with KHV resistant fish. Not what the Australian government intends or wants, but look at what's happening with anti-biotics.

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Immunized not immune, some carp (mostly Israeli koi from certain farms) are vaccinated with an attenuated strain of the Virus, I have herd of cases of these fish reverting and shedding live KHV so they are no real defense against an infection and may even make the chances of it happening more likely, defra have also warned that there are risks, especially mixing immunized and non immunized fish.

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Immunized not immune, some carp (mostly Israeli koi from certain farms) are vaccinated with an attenuated strain of the Virus, I have herd of cases of these fish reverting and shedding live KHV so they are no real defense against an infection and may even make the chances of it happening more likely, defra have also warned that there are risks, especially mixing immunized and non immunized fish.

The immunised strain of carp can still be carriers of KHV, and so, if stocked into lakes can pass the disease onto fish already present in the water.

 

Carp that have recovered are also still carriers.

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Thanks guys....some great valid comments that fall in line with the general consensus with the brethren down here....one in particular..from a Victorian carper....

 

They seem to believe that the killing of 95% of carp will bring their waterways back to a pristine condition, ignoring the fact that most of the damage is done by humans.  Remove the industrial pollution, urban and farming run off, bank erosion from cattle and ski boats, habitat removal, redirection of waterways and reduction of natural flows and then you can blame the carp.  

 

Take care

 

Paul

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