Australia Will Deliberately Release Herpes Virus To Kill Invasive Carp

Australia takes a step to kill the invasive carp that has been lurking around, without any natural enemies the Carp expanded rapidly.. And the countermesuare is to release a virus.

A herpes infection in humans is usually an annoyance, featuring intermittent blisters. In fish, herpes can be deadly.

And that's exactly what Australia is counting on. In an effort to rid their waterways of tons of invasive European Carp, the Australian Government is planning on releasing a carp-specific herpes virus into a river system in Australia in 2018 to try to stop what government officials are calling 'carp-ageddon'.

It might seem cruel, but eradication is increasingly seen as a valid method of repelling invasive species, and in the case of this virus, the effects seem limited to carp and koi, not other fish. At present, the sheer numbers of carp in Australia are making it all but impossible for native species of fish to survive.

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whoa, i wonder what Max Igan thinks about this... humans haven't been the most foreseeing and considerate when eradicating invasive species..

I saw this and I thought they were doing it here in the US to try to stop the Asian carp in the Missouri R. system from reaching the Great Lakes.

It's a little creepy, but usually the diseases stay in the animals they're put into. And Australia has used biological warfare on invasive critters before. They spread myxoma virus into rabbits which initially proved to be about 99% virulent and fatal; however, current strains are only about 40% fatal and they don't tend to reach rabbits in arid places because the disease is mosquito borne.

a reply to: PanPiper
Carp are hard enough to eat without being infected with herpes.

But there's no agreed-upon way to halt their spread; introducing species-specific viruses hasn't worked, encouraging people to eat them hasn't worked (at least in the U.S.; in Eastern Europe, they're often eaten), nets and poisons haven't worked. A newly published study from the Department of Biology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth may have a new answer: carp, it turns out, are trainable.

a reply to: PanPiper

From a link in the article.


training carp

Anyway, sounds like a bad idea to me.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

they gave it a chance in 2013, three years has gone by and no progress.. I think all life is precious, but it always needs a reasonable balance if it destroys more than brings..

Hmm wont they eventually build an immunity and then they will have a new generation of invasive carp to deal with? Sounds like a waste of money.

originally posted by: ketsuko
They spread myxoma virus into rabbits which initially proved to be about 99% virulent and fatal; however, current strains are only about 40% fatal and they don't tend to reach rabbits in arid places because the disease is mosquito borne.

lol, I remember that virus being released when I was a kid, it didn't have any impact though, rabbits are still absolutely everywhere in seemingly plague proportion.

I'm all for anything that might reduce the amount of carp in the Murray river though. There an absolutely useless fish, the Vietnamese seem to love them, but there considered inedible by all Australians.

The river is so infested with them, it sometimes seems impossible to catch anything else... if this herpes virus will revive the Murray cod, then bring it on!

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Carp is actually not too bad if you prepare it right. The big problem is the bones. They have soooo many!

Pressure cook them like canned salmon and the bones become edible, and/or cook them the way the Vietnamese do.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Carp is actually not too bad if you prepare it right. The big problem is the bones. They have soooo many!

Pressure cook them like canned salmon and the bones become edible, and/or cook them the way the Vietnamese do.

I have yet to find the recipe that makes carp taste good.
Stuffed carp was the best so far, but it wasn't great.
You stuff the carp with horse manure, bake at 350 for two hours.
Rake out the stuffing and discard the fish. Enjoy!

Smoked carp $4.99 a lb at the local grocery store. I don't think people are looking at this the right way. With food shortages, strapped finances, carp as an invasive species needs to be culled, no doubt. But it is a viable food source and should be appreciated as such. Many fish have a lot of bones, like salmon. In fact, people are turned off of fish simply because of bones. At least the large carp have large bones easy to identify and remove. Not like those tiny invisibles in a lot of fish. Smoked carp is awesome.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Seriously, there are a lot of things people turn their noses up at that are really good eating - like a lot of the organ meats.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: StoutBroux

Seriously, there are a lot of things people turn their noses up at that are really good eating - like a lot of the organ meats.

I don't turn my nose up at much, as far as food goes, I have even eaten an old Billy goat.
But I have yet to have carp that I could stand. I think it is a shame, because they have such nice slabs of meat on them. I can enjoy suckers caught from the same water as a carp, so it isn't the mud thing, as suckers are bottom feeders too.

Hmm, history shows Australia has not been particularly smart when it comes to this kind of thing..in fact down right stupid.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I had to Google search 'Murray Cod'. It is a beautiful fish. Sad to see that it is critically endangered. It looks like a largemouth bass with the snout of a pike, much better colors though.

Dear Australia,

Carp is tasty.

I don't really want to know what herpes carp taste like.

Why go with herpes when Australia could have huge fish cook outs all the time?

...all they need to do now, is get them to kiss...

Å99

No natural predators?.. in Australia?

I cant wait for this to happen. The carp are a huge problem and have made many native australian fish species become extinct or endangered and close to extinction. They muddy up the rivers and lakes. It really is well past time to eradicate them from the water-ways any way possible. Carp costs Australia about $500 million annually supposedly. Spending $18 million to get rid of them is fine by me.

a reply to: PanPiper

Wow, another dumbass move by Australia....

I heard we brought over the cane toad from Hawaii to kill the beetle that had been wrecking our cane crops, only problem with that was that the beetle lives at the top of the cane about 5 feet high, apparently cane toads love to eat them, but they cant jump 5 feet up.

So that left us with a continuous plague of toads that breed 10x faster than rabbits.

Thanks for the info