An article in Nature Science Update warns of a worrying new disease that potentially threatens wild common carp stocks (and that would include mirror and leather strains as well).
The koi herpes virus was first isolated in Israel in 1998 and has since been found in ornamental koi carp in Europe, Asia and the USA. In Japan it has killed large numbers of farmed common carp. The article makes only brief mention of the risk to wild stocks, but quotes a source as saying that the virus could decimate wild stocks if it spreads to them.
A quote from the report says, “Fish populations are periodically struck with viral diseases, but koi herpes virus, or KHV, is killing four out of every five fish that it infects, and has spread rapidly around the world. “In the past 30 years it’s the worst and most rapidly spreading virus I’ve dealt with,” says Ron Hedrick, who studies infectious diseases in fish at the University of California, Davis.
The disease threatens two important fish populations: the ornamental koi carp industry, which is worth tens of millions of dollars in Japan, and the common carp, the world’s fourth most-farmed fish.”For the full report see www.nature.com
