Scientists Ponder Releasing Virus to Kill Carp

[Steven Pro]

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060910/sc_space/scientistsponderreleasingvirustokillcarp

Scientists Ponder Releasing Virus to Kill Carp

Australian scientists have a new strategy for dealing with carp that have invaded their waterways: a virus that, if unleashed, could kill the fish.

While carp, also called koi, are considered a valuable resource in many Asian countries, in Australia the fish is generally viewed as a major pest, according to the new project's leader, Mark Crane of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory.

"Given their reproductive capacity and their hardiness, carp have been termed the ‘rabbit of the river,'" Crane said.

Carp were introduced into Australia in the early 1900s as a food and sporting fish. Extensive flooding in the 1970s allowed the fish to escape from farm dams and take over the waterways. The carp are particularly hard to get rid of because they can tolerate a wide range of water conditions and can also survive and breed in polluted, poorly oxygenated water.

"The fish grow to up to 20 kilograms [44 pounds] or more in weight and each female can lay up to three million eggs in a single season," Crane said. "In some areas of southeastern Australia carp make up more than 85 percent of the fish in the rivers and creeks."

The two-year project will investigate the effectiveness of using the Koi herpesvirus as a way to control strains of carp present in Australia and will examine whether the virus will have any impact on certain native fauna.

"The virus works by attacking the carp's gills as well as other vital organs and eventually killing its host," Crane said. "Koi herpesvirus is attractive as a biological control agent as overseas studies suggest that it has a very limited host range, infecting only carp."

This isn't the first time Australian scientists have thought of using a virus to control a pesky invasive species that threatens to push out native wildlife. In August, researchers at the Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Center proposed using a highly infectious virus to sterilize female rabbits and keep rabbit populations under control.

For now, these proposals remain in the testing phases. "If the laboratory studies show promise, the next step will be extensive government, public and industry consultation to determine the best course of action to control carp, while protecting and restoring Australia's valuable waterways," Crane said.

:crazy1:

 

[Tigger240]

post this on ozreef.com and maybe some proactive people will protest and/or offer a really good opioion on the subject

 

[billsreef]

Didn't they learn from introducing Cane Toads

 

[SoS125]

Won't be long before they do that to Snakeheads and oscars in the US

 

[Aidos]

I live is South Australia and have grown up fishing on the Murray River. All you catch is Carp and they are choking the system. I live in the driest state of the driest country and the Murray River is our main source of freshwater. We need to preserve the river and its eco systems not just to preserve our way of life but to maintain the biodiveristy of the system.
for every 10 carp you catch u may also catch a native species. many of our native freshwater fish are threatend/ endangered and carp are a serious threat to native fish stocks by consuming there eggs.
As unfortunate as it is, we must try to fix the problems of the past. killing any living thing is a shame but it is required inorder to help heal the river and save may native species.

 

[billsreef]

Aidos,

I don't think anyone has a problem with trying to eliminate non-native species, but rather the method. Such biological methods have often backfired and even become worse than the problem they were meant to solve. The Cane Toads you have down there are just one of many such examples of such problems that can be found around the world. The problems with using a virus is that they can rapidly mutate to infect other species. Carp are a member of one of the largest families of fish, with members found on every continent. Introducing a virus for Koi could easily backfire and end up infecting native species that have no immunities to it. That is the worry.

 

[SoS125]

yeah anything introduced like that would have to be tested a long long time before it could be introduced. if it works on one native species that they didn't intend it to work on that would be a disaster.

 

[Steven Pro]

I don't understand why they don't just use fisherman to get rid of them. We have hunted numerous animals to the point of extinction. Why not use this practice for good instead?

 

[lux_06]

steven - cos you cant eat the dirty things!!! i agree with you, there are so little fish left in our oceans yet we cant make a dent in the carp population, i live in South Australia too, like aidos and man the river is in such a mess, its is so dirty it smells from the carp stirring it up, i moved to Aus in 1990 went fishing on our first holiday to the river caught over 20 redfin perch, been back since and never caught another one since, no more yabbies in the river either.... i waterski on the river weekly and u cant put your hand 3cm under the surface and still be able to see it.

what is missing from this article is they recently did use something like this to kill off the carp in a lagoon area close the the river mouth, what happened......... the lagoon filled up with weed and was unusable for all boats.............. this is a problem of cane toad proportions and i have no idea how they will fix it, but i want those carp out of our river now.

 

[wds21921]

I may be in the minority (in part) but everytime I've seen humans try to take control of a population incident, whether it be a foreign species introduction or biological/scientifical, there is always a backlash of sorts.
Time and time again nature has it's own way of controlling things and I think it would be better to leave it to natural attrition. If the species remains then it's meant to be. Simplistic but honest.

 

[graveyardworm]

Bill are you out there? See here http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8298688#post8298688

 

[spoiledcats]

If these are the same thing that are being sold as koi in the States, I would think they could make alot of money exporting them for the garden ponds so many people have. People pay alot of money for those things around here. And everyone seems to have a koi pond these days.

 

[mzeinstr]

i paid alot for the ones in my koi pond, but they can't possibly be the same thing

quote - "The carp are particularly hard to get rid of because they can tolerate a wide range of water conditions and can also survive and breed in polluted, poorly oxygenated water."

so they can't be the same--i consider my water pretty clean, and 9 of them died, so they are not that hardy.

 

[spoiledcats]

Does this virus only attack the gills of carp? How do they know it won't wipe out other native species as well?

 

[billsreef]

It also attacks other parts of the fish. One of the clinical characteristics is skin lessions on the body. It's become a very widespread problem with koi, which are a member of the carp family. However, I don't see where it is virulent enough to be used to eradicate large populations of carp like they seem to be thinking.

 

[spoiledcats]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8307723#post8307723 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
It also attacks other parts of the fish. One of the clinical characteristics is skin lessions on the body. It's become a very widespread problem with koi, which are a member of the carp family. However, I don't see where it is virulent enough to be used to eradicate large populations of carp like they seem to be thinking.

What I'm really asking(guess I didn't word it right) is will the virus only attack carp, and not other native species of fish?

 

[billsreef]

Let's put it this way, so far it is only known to effect carp. However, there are a quite a few viruses that were once only known to effect certain species or families, and now are known to infect other species. Such things as bird flu, swine flu and aids come to mind. Viruses like to mutate and often learn to infect other organisms, no reason to expect koi herpes virus to be any different.

 

[spoiledcats]

Then it sounds like they are playing with fire by introducing this virus. I would think major fishing could alleviate the problem. Even if people don't want to eat them, I'm sure they could be used for fertilizer or something. Planting a fish in my garden (bluefish to be exact) always grew great tomatoes for me.

 

[edr42]

Well, the carp problem in Aus is far bigger than i think anyone here really realises. Fertilizer has been tried (an ingeneous product called "charlie carp" that stinks), fishing for them isn't making a dent, even though the government has gone to the extent of making it illegal to return a carp that you have caught to the water (at least in NSW).
The problem is that they essentially have ended up in a place where they can breed year round, and have practically no predators.
I hope that lessons have been learned from the cane toad, prickly pear cactus, rabbit, fox, etc problem and this new measure will have been extensively tested on all the native species.

 

[Aliie]

Send them to the south...the rednecks love to eat anything that eats from the bottom. Can't they be given as food to a hunger.org type thing? Is it really worth the chance introducing the virus?