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Regarding SVCV and KHV November, 2006
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Regulations regarding SVCV and KHV
By Spike Cover, November 2006
Spring Viremia of Carp Virus (SVCV)
A short time ago, the federal register published a rule (yes, they can do that w/o congress’s approval and w/o public debate if they say it’s something special – see Fed. Register link below) that outlined what requirements needed to be met in order to get SVCV susceptible fish shipped into the U.S.
Here’s the link to the regulation as first published: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-14478.pdf . The APHIS folks subsequently extended the date of implementation by about 30 days. Sorry but I didn’t save the link to that.
In essence it says that if you want to have fish shipped into the U.S. and those fish fall into the SVCV susceptible category, you need to fill out a form, pay a fee and pay an APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services) vet to inspect the paperwork and the fish. If everything is OK, you get the fish, otherwise they destroy and dispose of them.
The rule was previewed in a Florida Aquaculture newsletter in December of last year (see: http://www.floridaaquaculture.com/publications/Issue_45.pdf ) and I sent the reference to a few koi dealers back then and ask that they “pass it on.”
Shortly after the reg. was published, the net was full of anxiety and largely unfounded speculation about how the reg. had come “out of left field and w/o warning,” and the huge problems that would ensue as a result of its implementation. I read the reg. and called the head APHIS vet in Sacramento. He said that essentially this was just going to be a paperwork inspection, i.e., no inspection of the fish. He further said that if needed, they had vets in the field that could be called in to handle any surge of import inspections.
It’s my understanding that most, if not all, the major koi producers in Japan have fulfilled the two-year inspection requirement to achieve the SVCV-free status required by the new reg. So unless you’re importing koi from some country that has not had a verifiably decent inspection program in place for the last couple of years, you just need to jump thru a few well defined hoops, pay a small fee and you’re good to go – details on request.
Koi Herpesvirus (KHV)
In about May of 2006, the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health – see: http://www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm ) listed koi herpesvirus (KHV) as a “reportable disease” – see: http://www.oie.int/eng/normes/fcode/en_chapitre_1.2.3.htm . This could have been a big deal but it’s apparently not going to be. Contacts within APHIS assure me that there will be no mandatory reporting of instances of the disease by private labs or vets. And that even when instances become known to APHIS, any remedial action will be totally at the discretion of the fish owner and their attending vet. APHIS will simply report to OIE on a regular basis that KHV is present in the U.S. So it’s business as usual which means that the buying public will have no official way of knowing if and when outbreaks occur or if anything is being done about them.