KHV (CyHV3)

[Dave 54]

Dave 54 submitted a new article:

KHV (CyHV3) - can it infect your koi .

Meyer and I recently had a chat about the KHV (CyHV3) virus so to the uninitiated what on earth is it and why should we be worried about it?
How many koi keepers are they like Val and ourselves or just ponders worry that their koi can be carriers of Latent KHV (CyHV3)?
The KHV (CYHV3) virus as Meyer was telling me is an insidious virus and there are dozen's of variants of this disease identified.
Now each one of these variant’s each one with their own mortality rates can lay dormant for...

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[Tula]

Very scary stuff. I was reading about this on a koi forum the other day

 

[Dave 54]

Very scary stuff. I was reading about this on a koi forum the other day

Which one was that Tula might want to take a look at it ourselves later but it shows the importance of QTing our fish even just to try and slow the spread of this dread virus .....

Dave

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Agreed, Very scary.

I think it will be interesting to see if a vaccine ever becomes available and put in to use. If all breeders and or dealers vaccinated young fish prior to leaving/being sold *maybe* it would reduce infection rate? In the perfect world anyway, right?

This also brings to mind the idea of having a "closed pond" in the sense that you add any koi to your pond at the same time and then no new stock are ever added unless of course born in the pond.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Just a couple of additional points that I would like to add to an already great article.

-A vaccine was developed in Israel by KoiVax Ltd and for a short period of time was available in the U.S. through Novartis. It was quite expensive and could only be administered by a licensed Veterinarian. The vaccine was pulled from the U.S. market after a contract dispute between the manufacturer and Novartis. This vaccine is still available to commercial aquaculturists.

-CyHV3 (KHV) was originally thought to be carried by Carp/Koi. Subsequent research has shown that It several other specie of fish can be carriers of this virus.......Goldfish being the specie of most concern to pond owners.

-CyHV3 (KHV) is an immuno-suppressant virus. Consequently, as Dave states in his article, opens the infected fish to secondary bacterial and parasitic infections, which is what ultimately causes the mortality. One has to cautiously consider that any pond-wide pathogenic issue, from Costia and flukes to fin rot and ulcers, may have CyHV3 (KHV) as the underlying cause. This I know from personal experience gained while diagnosing what was eventually found to be a CyHV3 (KHV) outbreak in a customer's pond. If your fish develop any health issues that do not respond as expected from proper treatment, the underlying cause may well be CyHV3 (KHV).

 

[Dave 54]

Many thanx for the additional points and thanx for the idea to do this article in discussions the other day.
They dont knick name the KHV (CyHV3) virus the Aids of the koi world for nothing, because it in laymans terms acts just like it eventually like in a human being KHV(CyHV3) overwhelms your koi's ability to fight things off
As you mentioned I found quite frightening was the ability of other species like tench to be a carrier of KHV(CyHV3) which I believe I mentioned
However am still unclear what came first GHV (CyHV2) or KHV (CyHV3) .



Dave

 

[Meyer Jordan]

However am still unclear what came first GHV (CyHV2) or KHV (CyHV3) .

CyHV3 was first identified as a separate virus in 2005. CyHV1 and CyHV2 were already well known at that time. This is not to say that CyHV3 was not active, but undetected/unidentified. before 2005.

 

[Dave 54]

CyHV3 was first identified as a separate virus in 2005. CyHV1 and CyHV2 were already well known at that time. This is not to say that CyHV3 was not active, but undetected/unidentified. before 2005.

I did hear a tale about the Israelis having problems with frogs on their carp farms rather than just let them be they used to shoot them and the bits of frog end up in the water to be eaten by the koi and it was through this the kio first became infected .
However if this is true or not [and I take this with a big pinch of salt] I know not but its just one of the many rumours that go around the koi world in the UK from time to time


Dave

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I did hear a tale about the Israelis having problems with frogs on their carp farms rather than just let them be they used to shoot them and the bits of frog end up in the water to be eaten by the koi and it was through this the kio first became infected .
However if this is true or not [and I take this with a big pinch of salt] I know not but its just one of the many rumours that go around the koi world in the UK from time to time


Dave

Without rumors and 'Old Wives Tales' the internet would not be nearly so interesting!!

 

[Dave 54]

Without rumors and 'Old Wives Tales' the internet would not be nearly so interesting!!

Without them we'd be left with inuendo Meyer

Dave