July 23, 2007

 

USDA's request for funding to study VHS fish disease turned down

 

 

The USDA's request for more funding to study the prevalence of the Viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) has been turned down, The National Aquaculture Association said.

 

The disease causes internal bleeding in fish.

 

Funding was supposed to be provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

 

Worries about the disease, prevalent in wild fish populations in the Great Lakes, being spread to aquaculture farms around the country, have prompted the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to request emergency funding.

 

The funding was intended for cooperative agreements with State agencies to conduct surveillance to determine the geographic spread of the disease and the kinds of species it has been infecting.

 

It would also have funded an education campaign on recreational activities which might spread the disease and to emphasize Federal Orders on safety measures.

 

The president of NAA has asked that the USDA resubmit their request for funding and is appealing for the aquaculture industry to write to Congressional representatives for the funding.

 

Meanwhile, a new fact sheet from the US Geological Survey's Western Fisheries Research Center has listed ways to detect and confirm a new and virulent strain of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus for researchers.

 

The recent spread of this new strain -- called VHSV Genotype IVb -- has resulted in large die-offs of thousands of game fish in four of the five Great Lakes since 2005.

 

As of spring 2007, this strain has been isolated from fish in Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River, and inland lakes in New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

 

This is the first time the new strain has been reported to cause an infectious disease in freshwater fishes of North America.

 

So far, the virus has not been identified in Lake Superior. If the disease was detected there, it could spread to the 31 states of the Mississippi River basin.

 

Researchers at the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center said the VHSV Genotype IVb has an unusually broad host range, affecting 25 species of finfish so far.