Spring Viraemia of Carp (SVC), GOLDFISH virus Options

[Mortevicar]

You may or may not be aware that the deadly fish disease Spring Viraemia of Carp (SVC) has been discovered in imports of goldfish brought into the UK from a Hong Kong aquarium fish supplier.

Defra has confirmed that routine import checks have identified the virus in a consignment of goldfish imported from Tung Hoi Aquarium Company, Hong Kong.

Other fish from the same supplier have been purchased by fish dealers, potentially aiding the spread of the virus through the aquarium trade.

Australia also imports from Tung Hoi - I have lost nearly ALL of my fish with the same symptoms in the last few days: bleeding through gills, white stringy faeces, protruding anus, lethargy. I purchased two fish from an aquarium that imported from Tung Hoi one month ago. It also makes sense as to why there are not many fish available as most importing has stopped because of the virus.


Morris

[bekko]

SVC is a reportable disease in all countries which are members of the World Organization for Animal Health (O.I.E.). Tung Hoi will have to go through a "stamping out" process after the source of the virus is found. This will take months and the company will be under quarantine order until the process is completed.

The U.S., the E.U., and probably others require a sanitary certificate for import and one of the stipulations of that certificate is that the stock has been tested on a regular basis and found to be free of SVC for at least two years.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I think that some minor player in the Chinese/Hong Kong goldfish export business will suddenly become a major player and start supplying the markets which Tung Hoi was forced to abandon. This new player may actually be selling the exact same fish which would have been sold by Tung Hoi. I suspect that Tung Hoi had a lot of small farms and contract growers feeding into their supply line and all those resources will now be diverted through a company with a different name.

Somewhere on the web there are photos of the Tung Hoi packing facility. It shows huge concrete vats with floating laundry baskets - each basket presumably containing a different sales order. Imagine the nightmare when one of those basket contains fish infected with SVC.

In the mean time, the flow of goldfish from Malaysia, through Singapore and into the EU and US continues.

Everyone should read up on this virus. Pay particular attention to the temperatures at which it is active. Many parts of the world never get cold enough for a SVC outbreak to occur even if the fish are carrying the virus. This has some important ramifications with respect to how the virus may be transmitted to other regions

Finally, do not automatically assume that all goldfish deaths are the result of SVC. Goldfish Herpes Virus is still as prevalent and unregulated as it ever was and all the same bacterial and parasitic diseases that were there last month are still there today.

-steve