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

[goldrush]

Not just Australia....I think there is a going to be a world wide ban...Singapore included.You can read more here

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...m.php?news=1609


So brace yourself for a shortage of chinese fish in these coming weeks or even months

[calicoly]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in australia we already ahve a shortage, buggars!

[Forever-mango]

Morris,

I seriously havent heard of this disease.

Just read that website and it says it may affect Koi. Hope AQIS knows of this matter and will be taken care of.

Don't want it to wipe out goldfish/koi like a few years ago with KHV!

[calicoly]

hey morris i read the article and my two ranchu's and urs had some of the same syptoms, like the swelling of the belly, protruding anus, trailing feaces, ... i wonder if this is the disease that killed our fish???? i hope not.

[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

[Pooky]

So what is the water temperature that this occurs?

[Mortevicar]

In natural outbreaks, mortalities were confirmed in spring when water temperatures ranged from 12°C to 22°C (54°F to 72°F).

The optimum temperature for viral replication in vitro is 20-22°C (68-72°F), however, this is also an optimum temperature range for immune function of susceptible species.

Clinical and experimental data indicate that maximum mortality can be expected at water temperatures below 18°C.

[demdamdemekins]

Scary stuff... Almost all of the high grade goldfish (excluding ranchu) that make it into the U.S. are from only a handful of importers, all of which deal with Tung Hoi almost exclusively. This situation is likely to shut down the trade in high grade goldfish indefinitely in the U.S, as 3 of the 4 main importers are Tung Hoi customers. I just pray that the government doesn't crack down and try to ban goldfish from China completely.

[desireless]

The worry does not lie on ban at the importers side.

As it is now, China has suspended all export of goldfish due to this SVC issue. It is going to take some time before they resume exporting goldfish again....

[bekko]

dddemekin, I don't think that APHIS bans entire countries. They do it on a farm-by-farm basis. However, when there is an outbreak they start to scrutinize all health certificates and processes more closely. Often times, the health certificate is not worth the paper it is printed on. I heard that APHIS is sending a person to Tung Hoi to get a getter feel for the situation.

If it had not been for the fact that the EU has required a 2-year history of being SVC-free for a long time, then Hong Kong imports would have been shut down last year when the new APHIS SVC regulation went into effect. Since Hong Kong was already jumping through the hoops for the EU regulation, they had the diagnostic history in place and there was no lapse in shipments. The importers just had to get an additional permit and incur the associated costs.

The largest worry may not be Hong Kong and China. They will get their act together and find a way to resume shipments. Malaysia could be another issue. The SVC diagnostics may not pick up a latent infection (carrier fish) and it may never get cold enough for an outbreak to occur in Malaysia, even if the virus is present. We just have to hope that the Malaysian farms are not still importing breeders from Hong Kong.

-steve