Giving carp herpes may not yield desired effects, says Griffith expert

The most likely problem to arise from introducing herpesvirus to carp populations in Australian waterways is one of effectiveness, according to an international team of researchers including Griffith University Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Jonathan Marshall.
In a letter published in the latest edition of renowned journal Science, Dr Marshall, of the Australian Rivers Institute, and his co-authors address the federal government’s proposed release of cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3, or koi herpesvirus) among the large numbers of introduced common carp that inhabit and dominate the country’s waterways, in an effort to reduce their numbers and aid the recovery of native species.
While they acknowledge that CyHV-3 can have a devastating effect on farmed carp populations, the broader number of variables at play in the wild, including carp biology, the virus’ pathogenesis and the ecology of local rivers, mean a release of koi herpesvirus would not likely result in the desired outcome.
Due to both the

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