|
The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus -- or VHS -- has now been
identified in 19 species in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, including
muskellunge, New York's No. 2 sport fish, said Paul Bowser, a
professor of aquatic animal medicine in the College of Veterinary
Medicine. Equally alarming, said Bowser, is the confirmation of
VHS in walleye in Conesus Lake, which is the westernmost Finger Lake
and is the only New York lake where VHS has been confirmed in a body
of water other than the contiguous waters of the Great Lakes.
"The fact that VHS was found in this inland body of water is
particularly disturbing in that it immediately brings up the
question of how did it get there and what can be done to prevent the
virus from moving to other bodies of water," said Bowser, who along
with his colleagues at Cornell recently developed a new test that
can identify the virus within 24 hours.
VHS was first detected in New York last year in fish from the St.
Lawrence and Niagara rivers, as well as the state's two Great Lakes.
Of the 19 species affected, VHS has caused serious fish kills in
six, Bowser said. In the remaining 13 species, Cornell scientists
have detected the virus but have recorded no "mortality events," he
said. There are approximately 150 species of freshwater fish in New
York.
"It has been found in a broad range of evolutionarily distinct
species, both cold- and warm-water families. We don't think there is
any species that is not susceptible," said Doug Stang, chief of the
New York Department of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of
Fisheries, which is monitoring 40 water bodies across the state to
track the spread of VHS.
Bowser said he suspects that the virus is spread by airborne or
terrestrial predators carrying infected fish, anglers using infected
bait minnows or contaminated fishing equipment, and as a result of
boating activities.
"Basically, we don't know how it got here, but it's here and it's
spreading," said Bowser.
The virus, which causes internal bleeding in fish but poses no
threat to humans, was discovered in the United States in 1988 in
Coho and Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest. VHS made its first
known appearance in the Great Lakes in 2005, killing freshwater drum
and muskellunge.
[to top of second column] |
 Since then, it has been found in more than two dozen fish species
throughout the Great Lakes basin.
This month, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources made a
preliminary identification of the virus for the first time in the
Lake Winnebago chain of inland lakes, about 25 miles south of Green
Bay on Lake Michigan. Confirmation is pending.
VHS-related die-offs killed millions of fish in Lake Erie and
Lake Ontario last year. There have been three new fish kills this
year in New York waters, Bowser said.
In the St. Lawrence River, hundreds of thousands of round gobies
have succumbed, and gizzard shad die-offs occurred in Lake Ontario
west of Rochester and in Dunkirk Harbor on Lake Erie, he said.
"In that most of our VHSV-associated fish kills in 2006 were in
May and June, we expect more to occur," Bowser said.
Other species that have tested positive include bluegill, rock
bass, black crappie, pumpkinseed, smallmouth and largemouth bass,
northern pike, yellow perch, channel catfish, brown bullhead, white
perch, white bass, emerald shiner, bluntnose minnow, freshwater
drum, and burbot.
Containing the spread of the virus in New York will require
restrictions on the movement of live fish, testing fish and
surveillance, Bowser said.
"There will be inconveniences and disruptions that will occur.
However, to do nothing could be disastrous," said Bowser, adding
that VHS threatens the state's $1.2 billion sport-fishing industry
and could have a devastating effect on aquaculture.
Last year, New York enacted a series of emergency regulations to
curb the virus' spread, such as requiring that bait fish be used in
the same body of water from which they were collected unless they
have been tested. Those regulations will likely become permanent
next month, said Department of Environmental Conservation
spokeswoman Maureen Wren.
[Text copied
from file received from AP
Digital; article by William Kates, Associated Press writer]
 |
