Biological control of carp in Australia by an infectious agent such as an exotic virus was first mooted in the 1970s (Stephenson 1978) following discovery, isolation and identification of the Causative agent of spring viraemia of carp (SVC), an acute, haemorrhagic disease of farmed carp in Europe.
This report reviews briefly our current understanding of the epizootiology of fish diseases in general and of SVC specifically, provides a brief introduction to the structure, classification and replication of SVCV and discusses the possibility of genetic manipulation of the virus to alter its efficacy as a biological control agent. Other issues, such as legislation, socio-economic impact, animal welfare, associated with the possible use of SVCV as a biological control agent have been discussed previously (Crane 1995).
|Author||Crane, M. S. and Eaton, B. T.|
|Secondary title||Controlling carp: exploring the options for Australia|
|Publisher||CSIRO Land and Water|
|ISBN/ISSN||ISBN 0 643 05883 4|
|Control method||Biological Control|
|Region||Australia - national|