Tara Sattar
The Australian government has a plan of investing a huge amount of $15 mililon for the purpose of releasing herpes virus into the rivers in order to wipe out the most tarnished fish pest. Since their beginning in 1859, carp has annihilated a huge number of fish and now owns up to 80% of fish numbers. A research has been ongoing for the last seven years scrutinize the prospective of how effective – cyprinid herpesvirus 3 – is which is carp-specific herpes strain, according to the scientist in CSIRO, Australia’s national research body. A test has shown that different kinds of virus become successful in killing carps. But it does not affect the local fish species or yabbies, eels, chickens, mice, frogs, turtles or water dragons. Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 is scheduled to be released into the Murray-Darling river system by the end of 2018. Be prepared.“As you can imagine there is a lot of work to be done in preparation,” science minister Christopher Pyne told a press conference on Sunday. “Because suddenly, there will be literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tonnes, of carp that will be dead… So we have to have a clean-up programme.” The herpes virus is fatal to carp because it attacks their kidneys, skin and gills, and makes it difficult for them to breathe, says Ken McColl of CSIRO.