VHS

By Bill Hilts, Jr.

The discovery of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia
(VHS) in the Great Lakes, from Lake St. Clair to the St. Lawrence
River, has resulted in a Federal Order to prohibit or restrict the
interstate importation or movement of some 37 live fish species in an
effort to limit the introduction or dissemination. Due to these outbreaks
of VHS, the administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) has issued this order as a result of the Animal Health
Protection Act. This is being issued to help prevent the spread of VHS
into aquaculture facilities.

     Effective immediately, the
importation of these fish from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are
prohibited for these 37 species. Prohibited domestic areas include
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
Wisconsin. This is serious stuff when it comes down from the Feds, so the
State’s Department of Environmental Conservation will undoubtedly be
putting further restrictions into place.

       Look for restrictions on bait dealers, especially, because some
of the fish species on the list in include the emerald shiner and
bluntnose minnow. There could be more restrictions to deal with. Too. Before
we get into this any further, just a quick comment that was made time and
time again by DEC Bureau of Fisheries Chief Doug Stang: “VHS poses no
risk to human health.” DEC was already taking a more
cautious approach when it came to fisheries management and fisheries
movements because of VHS. There was some changes to DEC’s standard
operating procedures in relation to egg taking, handling and fish
transfers from the Salmon River Fish Hatchery.

VHS was first discovered in Lake St. Clair, Michigan in 2003. Since
that time, it has been discovered in Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake
Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. It was first discovered in the United
States in 1988 with spawning salmon in the Pacific Northwest. It has since
been found in both wild and hatchery raised salmon in the Pacific
Northwest. All told, nearly 40 different wild fish species – both
freshwater and marine – have tested positive for the virus. “We’re
not trying to be alarmists,” said Stang. “However, we will be
taking numerous precautions in our day-to-day operations to help us
prevent the inadvertent spread of this virus. We simply don’t know enough
about it yet.”

       Some of the actions that will be taken immediately include: 
1.] Suspend the transfer of Chinook salmon/steelhead eggs or fish
from Salmon River Fish Hatchery to Caledonia or other hatcheries
(including Powder Mill Park);
2.]  Obtain/test pre-spawning adult salmon from Salmon River
Fish Hatchery for presence of VHS;
3.] Disinfect eggs collected from all Pacific salmon, steelhead,
lake trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon for 30-60 minutes during water
hardening process to reduce the risk of vertical (fish to egg)
transmission;
4.]  Sample 60 fish per species used for screening Lake
Ontario salmonids for routine fish health inspections; n Review/experiment
with coolwater species egg disinfection procedures to determine
feasibility of disinfection during water hardening;
5.] Test coolwater species (walleye and muskellunge) for presence
of VHS and develop an action plan for spring 2007 activities.

“Once we get a couple years under our belt with the egg
purification process, we’ll go back to moving eggs to other
hatcheries,” said Stang. “We’re just not comfortable with that
process right now. It won’t impact us that much for the time being.”
One impact will be with the stocking of some 450,000 king salmon that have
been reared at the Caledonia Fish Hatchery the last several years. Some
stakeholders within the Lake Ontario sportfishery have argued that fish
from this hatchery have been giving Western Basin ports a much better
survival rate and a greater return through the imprinting process. Plans
were underway to fin clip and pen rear Caledonia salmon in Oak Orchard in
2007 and Olcott in 2008. That program will have to be suspended for the
time being, with all salmon now coming from the Salmon River facility.
What could have serious implications down the road is the fact that
between 30 and 40 walleye from Conesus Lake in the Finger Lakes tested
positive last August. At the same time, Lake Erie
and Niagara River emerald shiners also tested positive, along with some
blunt nose minnows in the St. Lawrence in September – all through a quick
test that was developed through Cornell University. While
the Cornell procedure has never been proven wrong, this is still
preliminary information and not confirmed officially confirmed through the
World Organization for Animal Health. We’ll have more information for you
as this all unfolds

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Paralyzed water birds drown and float dead to shore. Virus-infected
fish bleed out of their eyes. Invasive mussels and fish interact to spread
toxic bacteria.

It’s not a worst case-scenario. It’s what’s happening now on Lake
Ontario, and scientists say invasive species and diseases are to blame.

In recent weeks, a toxic form of botulism has killed more than 500
common loons on the lake. A virus that causes uncontrolled bleeding has
infected thousands of fish, killing hundreds and prompting federal
officials to ban the transport of more than three dozen species.

“It’s a horrible feeling, walking around the beach and seeing a
bunch of corpses,” said Jack Manno, executive director of the Great
Lakes Research Consortium at the State University College of Environmental
Science and Forestry. “People who have a sense that something is
wrong are right.”

Botulism spores have long been found in the sediment lining the bottom
of Lake Ontario, but until quagga mussels arrived in the early 1990s, no
toxic outbreaks bloomed, according to Helen Domske, a Buffalo-based senior
extension specialist for New York SeaGrant. Many scientists believe the
outbreaks began when quagga mussels started interacting with another
invasive species: round gobies.

“You can have quagga mussels, but until you have round gobies,
it’s no problem,” Domske said. “It’s the two working together
that causes these outbreaks.”

Quagga musselssuck oxygen from Lake Ontario, creating a perfect
breeding ground for toxic botulism, Manno said. While feeding, the mussels
absorb botulism spores and concentrate them in their systems. Round gobies
feed on the mussels, then pass the toxin on to the loons, gulls and
mergansers that eat them.

The disease that is killing fish, viral hemorrhagic septicemia, also
has no roots in Lake Ontario.

“We think VHS is an exotic, a recent introduction to the Great
Lakes,” said Gerry Barnhart, director of fish, wildlife and marine
resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
“The virus was likely transported in ballast water in vessels coming
from the Atlantic, through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great
Lakes.”

The recent diseaseoutbreaks have the potential to affect almost every
aspect of the lake, including baitfish sales, sport and recreational
fishing, tourism and property values.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently banned the interstate
transport of 37 species of live fish to try to curb the spread of VHS. The
state Department of Environmental Conservation this week is discussing
enacting similar rules, Barnhart said.

“It’s an economic problem,” said Manno, of the Great Lakes
Research Consortium. “Much of the commercial fisheries on the Great
Lakes are baitfish.”

Anglers, boaters and tourists in 2003 spent $600 million in the regions
bordering the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes, according to a 2004 SeaGrant
study, the most recent available.

“All the communitiesalong the lake and at the tributaries rely
very heavily on summer tourism for their economic development, whether
it’s boating, fishing or sailing,” said Christine Gray, director of
the Oswego County Department of Promotion and Tourism. “When there’s
a lot of reporting about issues on the lake, it has an impact on whether
people will come here. They often won’t.”

Said Manno: “Who wants to go to the lake and see a bunch of dead
birds?”

Barnhart said VHS could crush sport and recreational fishing if species
such as smallmouth bass and walleye, both popular local game fish infected
by the disease, start dying off in large numbers.

It’s too early to tell if that will happen. Since VHS appeared only a
few months ago in Lake Ontario, biologists are holding out hope that the
fish may build a resistance to the disease.

But with no cures in sight, scientists expect problems to get worse
before they get better – if they ever do. Biologists at the DEC agree that
outbreaks of botulism, viral hemorrhagic septicemia and other diseases
likely will become yearly events on Lake Ontario, as they have on other
Great Lakes.

“Even if it ends during this migration period, we could see it
again next year,” DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren said.

Like many invasive species, neither quagga mussels nor round gobies
have natural predators in Lake Ontario. Scientists’ only hope is to stop
the spread of invasive species before they begin to choke and sicken
inland water bodies, too.

That, however, takes funding, legislation and international
cooperation, the experts said.

“We’re really at the turning point,” Manno said. “We’re
either going to do it now or we’re going to regret it later.”

Delen Goldberg can be reached at [email protected] or 470-2274.

© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.