VHS Disease Spread Under Control

(C) Ohio Outdoor News :Editor Mike Moore http://ohiooutdoornews.com/

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ’�� The Ohio Department of Agriculture has extended an emergency order that prohibits the intrastate transportation, sale, or distribution of 28 fish species susceptible to Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, or VHS.

The initial order came down a year ago after an outbreak of VHS on Lake Erie killed thousands of yellow perch and freshwater drum.

’��The Ohio Department of Agriculture is charged with the responsibility of protecting animals from potentially devastating diseases,’�� said ODA’��Director Robert Boggs said. ’��This emergency order not only protects Ohio’��s fish population but others in points beyond the state’��s borders.’��

VHS is a fish disease, which must be reported to the ODA under state law. VHS was introduced into the wild fish population by an invasive species. It is not harmful to humans or other animals.

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Testing to date performed by ODA’��s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory has revealed that VHS is not present inland in Ohio. The department will continue to test and monitor for the disease.

Ohio’��s ban prohibits intrastate distribution of VHS-susceptible fish or eggs out of the area in Ohio north of U.S. Highway 6 from the Indiana border to the intersection of U.S. Highway 6 and Interstate 90 near Fremont, continuing on Interstate 90 to the Pennsylvania border. This also includes the Sandusky River south of U.S. Highway 6 to the Ballville dam.

VHS-susceptible fish include: black crappies, bluegills, bluntnose minnows, brown bullheads, brown trout, burbot, channel catfish, chinook salmon, emerald shiners, freshwater drum, gizzard shad, lake whitefish, largemouth bass, muskellunge, shorthead redhorse, northern pike, pumpkinseeds, rainbow trout, rock bass, round goby, silver redhorse, smallmouth bass, spottail shiner, trout-perch, walleyes, white bass, white perch, and yellow perch.

The prohibition is in effect in Ohio until the U.S. Department of Agriculture’��s division of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service releases its embargo and prohibition of the movement of live VHS susceptible fish. The prohibition does not apply to live fish or eggs removed directly from production facilities that have tested negative for VHS. It also excludes live fish or eggs that are being transported for use by research scientists in closed research facilities with diagnostic laboratories.

The order will not affect the Division of Wildlife’��s fish stocking efforts this spring, said fisheries administrator Ray Petering.