Ebola-like virus killing fish in Great Lakes
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By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
A deadly Ebola-like virus is killing fish of all types in the Great Lakes, a development some scientists fear could trigger disaster for the USA's freshwater fish.
Because of a lack of genetic resistance to viral hemorrhagic septicemia, fish populations could be damaged in the same way the smallpox virus struck Native Americans and Dutch elm disease decimated elm trees, says Jim Winton, chief of fish health at the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle.
The disease has been found in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Niagara River and an inland lake in New York. The aggressive virus, which causes fish to hemorrhage, was unexpectedly found in the Great Lakes in 2005. Last year, it resulted in large fish kills that struck at least 20 species. Scientists are watching to see whether the disease returns in mid-May when water in the lakes warms to temperatures at which the virus attacks.
"VHS is the most important and dangerous fish virus known worldwide," Winton says. "Its discovery in our fresh water is disturbing and potentially catastrophic."
The United States and Canada try to contain the virus by restricting the transporting of fish and live bait and telling boaters to wash their boats when moving them between lakes. Michigan's Department of Natural Resources has taken the most dramatic action: closing hatcheries that produce three important sport fish — walleye, northern pike and muskellunge.
"The last thing you want to do is get the virus into the hatcheries and become a vehicle for spreading the virus," says Gary Whelan, who runs the state's hatcheries and chairs the multistate Great Lakes Fish Health Committee.
"What's so disturbing is that it's killing fish from so many species and with amazingly high mortality levels," says Paul Bowser, professor of aquatic animal medicine at Cornell University. The virus does not threaten humans, Bowser says. "If you cook the fish, heat will kill the virus," he says.
How VHS got into the Great Lakes is unclear. The dumping of ocean water from an international cargo ship is a suspected cause. Also not ruled out: spawning fish swimming upstream or a bird carrying a diseased fish.
Genetic tests show that the strain of VHS found in the Great Lakes probably originated in the Atlantic Ocean, near New Brunswick, Canada. That places the virus' origin near the start of the St. Lawrence River shipping route that leads to the lakes.
VHS thrives in water of 40 to 59 degrees. Most water in the Great Lakes, which contain about 20% of the world's fresh water, has not hit that temperature yet this year.
"The best-case scenario is that the virus becomes something that lurks in the background and attacks only when conditions are ripe," Whelan says. "I'm not expecting that, but I am hoping."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-29-virus-fish_N.htm?csp=1 -
Oh noes ! .... if they get here there won't be fishies left to catch ! ...
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I thought u will reply to this postOriginally posted by Fatum:Oh noes ! .... if they get here there won't be fishies left to catch ! ...
I didn't expect you to be the first
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time to fish in ur own fish tankOriginally posted by Fatum:Oh noes ! .... if they get here there won't be fishies left to catch ! ... 
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Times Herald - Port Huron, MI
Virus having impact on two hobbies
Think of it as recreational murder-suicide.
Two of the area's most popular summer pastimes may be close to extinction.
Fishing will die when viral hemorrhagic septicemia kills the fish in Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River and Lake Huron.
Freighter-watching will meet a similar fate as state and federal officials scramble to stop the spread of the disease in the other Great Lakes and across North America.
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia is the Ebola virus of fish. Infected fish basically bleed to death. It has killed thousands in Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River since it was found there in 2005.
Authorities are bracing for even larger spring die-offs as the water warms.
The VHS plague came to Lake St. Clair in the ballast water of an ocean-going freighter. Genetic markers show it's a variant of the disease that infects fish in North American Atlantic coastal waters. Other varieties kill fish in Europe.
The Great Lakes version appears to have mutated into a form that's particularly good at killing all the species of fresh-water fish we look forward to catching.
It's here, and there's no way to get rid of it.
That's why the Department of Natural Resources this week suspended its programs to rear and stock walleye, pike and muskellunge. Eggs for the hatcheries come from waters known to be infected with the virus, and rearing fish from those eggs only would mean spreading the disease.
So it's compounded bad news for anglers. Expect the virus to kill all the wild fish. Don't expect a DNR stocking program to replace them.
It's obvious that ocean-going freighters brought the disease here.
Michigan's new ballast law for ocean-going ships is a good idea. At least it would have been before there was anything left alive in the Great Lakes to save.
But now it doesn't go far enough.
What we have is movement of ballast water within the Great Lakes. A lake freighter that takes on ballast water in the St. Clair River could destroy fisheries across the continent if dumps it in southern Lake Michigan and it ends up in the Mississippi River.
There's almost no way for the disease to get into Lake Superior, for instance, without human help. Theoretically, I suppose, a recreational boater could move it there. But the far more likely scenario is it would travel up the St. Marys River and through the Soo locks in the bowels of a laker.
One federal agency has prohibited most transport of live fish into and out of the Great Lakes basin.
Michigan's Department of Natural Resources says that isn't enough.
While all the attention has been on the new ban on ocean-going ships dumping their contaminated ballast water in the lakes, the agency also has asked the federal government to prohibit ships from filling their ballast tanks with water from the lower lakes.
That's the only way to keep the virus out of lakes Michigan and Superior and points beyond.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070406/SPORTS/704060320/1006: -
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If it gets to the oceans...don't need to eat fish?
