- TOKYO (AP) -- A herpes virus
that has decimated Japan's carp farms is spreading, officials said Thursday,
as they battled to contain the country's first known outbreak of the fish
disease.
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- Since October, farm-bred carp in Lake Kasumigaura and
Lake Kitaura in eastern Japan have died en masse, threatening the lakes'
annual catch. On Sunday, fisheries officials in Ibaraki prefecture (state),
where the lakes are located, had estimated the amount of dead fish at 860
metric tons (946 short tons), equivalent to 150 million yen (US$1.4 million)
of losses for fishers.
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- But Ibaraki official Naoaki Watanabe said experts who
spent two days surveying fish farms found that the death toll had risen
further.
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- By Thursday, there were 1,124 metric tons (1,236 short
tons) of dead fish, or roughly one-quarter of the prefecture's annual supply
to retailers, Watanabe said. Fishers' losses have grown to 280 million
yen (US$2.55 million), he added.
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- Ibaraki is just northeast of Tokyo.
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- Nine other prefectures - as far south as Fukuoka and
Miyazaki prefectures on the southernmost main island of Kyushu - also reported
that the virus had turned up in dead fish. Fisheries officials said there
is no known cure; 90 percent of all infected fish die.
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- Takaji Iida, a scientist at the private Fisheries Research
Agency's National Research Institute of Aquaculture in western Mie prefecture
said a national panel of experts was investigating the cause.
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- "Based on the current situation, it's possible that
the infection spread from carp in Lake Kasumigaura. We can't just assume
that the virus came from somewhere else," Iida told reporters.
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- Although biologists doubt the disease can be transmitted
to people who eat infected carp, officials urged retailers to remove carp
from their display refrigerators for now.
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- Another Ibaraki prefectural official, Manabu Mashiko,
said fishers had been ordered to bury all dead fish.
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- First detected in Israel in 1997, the virus has spread
to carp in other countries, including Britain, Germany, Taiwan, Indonesia,
the Netherlands, and the United States. It is thought to have killed carp
in the Great Lakes of the United States in 2000.
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- The virus appears to be transmitted between fish by direct
contact or from mud, nets, buckets, parasites, plants, or water. It targets
the gills, and death is fast.
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- In July, Japan imposed restrictions on carp imports in
an attempt to prevent a viral outbreak here.
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- Carp, known as koi in Japanese, are prized inhabitants
of ponds, parks, and water gardens. They are also raised and sold to restaurants
that specialize in koi cuisine.
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- The outbreak in Japan, though limited, has fishers worried
that carp sales may plunge.
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- Copyright © 2003 Environmental News Network Inc.
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- http://www.enn.com/news/2003-11-07/s_10215.asp
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