Disease and the Ornamental Fish Trade

[Roxanne]

I thought you guys might be interested in this... a good insight into disease transmission. The gourami irdovirus has been found in the (Australian River) Murray and have impacted the river cod. It called for a review on ornamental fish importation, but it is too late to rid the Murray River of the pathogen now. Way too much F & MG would be needed;)..Though I was aware that releasing domestic fish into rivers and streams was a no no, I didn't realise that pathogen transmission was of more concern than anything else. One person has impacted a whole eco system by letting their gouramis go in there. Whoever you are, LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!!!

It also highlights the concerns of wild caught fish pathogens and their introduction into the domestic population..what do you guys think?

http://www.scahls.org.au/NAAH-TWG/docs/ornimental_fish-risk.pdf

Rox

[H&K.45]

There has been a big prob with that in local lakes and rivers here in Texas, im not so sure about the disease transfers to local wildlife however when i was younger my sister caught a HUGE oscar in a local lake (Bembrook lake)and I saw a school of koi in a local river (Brazos) on a back packing trip i went on back in march. Hopefully it dosent impact the indigenous species too much.

[plecocicho]

Disease transfer is one of the big four riders of apocalypse in biodiversity (others are killing, habitat destruction and competion of nonnative species). It can have grave consequence for autochtonous populations, the best exemple is the collapse of american natives after the introduction of european diseases.