Carp diem: Australia’s plan to target carp population with herpes virus

Australia’s native carp population is under attack as a new hybrid of invasive carp species is costing the Australian government millions of dollars a year.

Australia’s new Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce has made plans to target the alien species as it reeks havoc and is quickly decimating the country’s native carp species. According to UPI, the damage has caused their economy $500 million dollars a year as well as formidable ecological repercussions.

The government’s solution is to release a strain of the herpes virus called cyprinid herpesvirus 3 into Australia’s largest river systems in the attempt to kill off the alien carp species. At the moment, it’s estimated they take up nearly 80 to 90 percent of all fish in the Murray-Darling river system in southeastern Australia.

It’s estimated to be a two year operation as preparation has to be made to get rid of the many carp corpses with 2018 planned as the end of the carp-killing procedure.

“We would expect to release the virus by the end of 2018, because as you can imagine there is a lot of work to be done in preparation for the outcome,” Christopher Pyne, Australia’s science minister stated, “Because suddenly, there will literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tonnes, of carp that will be dead in the River Murray.”

The government estimate it will cost $15 million to carry out the plan and, if successful, will wipe out 80 to 90 percent of the carp population. The only potential risk is that the carp start developing a resistance to the herpes virus.

“The virus kills large numbers of the target for the first couple of years but gradually, over time, some resistance builds up. However, numbers never recover to their original levels.”

Ecologists are welcoming the plan as the carp are threatening other species of native fish and with the carp females producing up to a million eggs per year, they have fast become a huge pest in the Australian waterways.