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In efforts to stop a contagious fish disease
from coming to the United States,
the government has for the first time
slapped restrictions on imported koi and
goldfish. Officials admit the rules will
drive up ornamental fish prices because
large importers will be hit with annual fees
up to $20,000 each.
There are currently no reported cases of the
disease, spring viremia of carp, in the
United States, and the new
restrictions are aimed primarily at fish
imported from Asia, including top koi
exporter Japan. Since 2002, three
U.S. cases of the deadly disease have
been linked to fish imported from Asian
suppliers, officials said.
The regulations, which were to go into
effect Sept. 29 without public comment,
require that each shipment of live koi,
goldfish or carp be inspected for the
disease in the country of origin, and
inspected again by officials once in U.S. seaports
and airports. Only larger U.S. seaports, airports and border
crossings can accept such imports.
The regulations even cover koi and goldfish
brought into the
United States by
tourists as part of their luggage, an
exemption officials rejected because they
could not be certain that even such hobbyist
fish wouldn’t be dumped into a stream or end
up in a U.S. fish farm.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, which wrote the
regulations, says there hasn’t been an
outbreak of the disease within the nascent U.S. ornamental
fish industry and the problem is considered
"a foreign animal disease."
But agency officials said that the disease,
first reported in Yugoslavia in 1969, is so contagious and would be
so damaging to the U.S. fish farm industry, and
potentially to wild freshwater fish as well,
that it cannot be allowed to get a toehold
here.
The disease spreads via live animals through
their waste and from inanimate objects
contaminated with the virus. It survives for
a long period in water and mud, which is why
the regulations require shippers to scour
containers with chlorine and iodine before
fish are shipped.
There is no U.S.-approved vaccine for the
disease and about 70 percent of the young
fish that get the disease die, officials
said. Older fish have a higher tolerance,
but once there is an outbreak all fish in
the same water must be killed, APHIS said in
its regulations.
APHIS scientists said that spring viremia of
carp is caused by eponymous rhabdovirus. It
causes fish to have "pop-eye," "dropsy" and
"hemorrhages in the gills," among other
symptoms. Making the disease even more
dangerous is that some fish with the disease
show no symptoms but still spread it.
The regulations are urgency measures that,
under law, don’t need public comment to be
adopted, officials said. But APHIS said it
will accept comments from people and
businesses affected and it could make some
changes to the rules as a result.
APHIS does not have current figures on how
many fish are being imported into the
country that would fall under the
regulations. In 1998, the
United States imported
$45.1 million worth of live ornamental fish,
about 60 percent from
Asia. That year the
United States
exported $10.6 million in such fish. Then
there were 76 carp farms, 34 feeder goldfish
farms, 115 koi and 65 ornamental goldfish
farms in the United States, with annual sales of
$21.5 million.
The regulations identify the following
species of live fish, fertilized eggs and
gametes (fish cells) subject to the new
controls: "Common carp, including koi, grass
carp, silver carp, bighead carp, goldfish,
tench and sheatfish."
The agency said that new fees for permits
and inspections would run from $378 to $504
per shipment. The average cost of permits
for an importer with seven shipments a year
would be $685, and the average cost of
inspections for an importer with four or
more shipments a year would be $2,700 to
$3,650 a year.
Officials said a small number of firms
import more than 40 shipments a year and
their costs would be $15,000 to $20,000 a
year. The regulations are expected to cost
all importers as much $316,512 a year in
inspection fees and $59,032 for import
permits.
APHIS expects importers to pass along the
costs in higher prices.
"While it is anticipated that the permit and
inspection cost may have a discernible
impact on prices, we believe the benefits of
preventing depopulation and cleaning and
disinfecting expenditures, will exceed any
negative price effects," the agency said.
All fish that are covered by the new
regulations must be held at the port of
entry until released by the port
veterinarian. The regulations also give the
agency the authority to set aside the rules
when importation will not result in the
introduction of the disease. In addition,
the regulations don’t generally apply to
fish being shipped through the
United States
if shippers place the fish in an
agency-approved holding facility and have a
permit.
All fish imported under the new regulations
must have an import permit and all shipments
must have a health certificate from the
exporting country, in English and issued by
a "veterinarian of the national government
of the exporting region" or other authority
saying that the fish being shipped were
inspected for spring viremia of carp and are
healthy.
The regulations say that fish can be
imported only from other countries that can
show that they have a spring viremia testing
program in place, test fish for the disease
twice a year and can show that the fish have
a disease-free history for at least two
years.
Once fish regulated by the rules arrive at a U.S. port, they must be inspected by
a port veterinarian, who can refuse the fish
entry if any traces of the disease are
found.
Only these airports and seaports in the
United States will accept fish regulated by
these new rules: Los Angeles; San Francisco;
Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Atlanta; Honolulu;
Chicago; Boston; Newark, N.J.; New York;
Portland, Ore.; Dallas-Fort Worth; San Juan,
Puerto Rico; and border crossings at
Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Seattle, Sumas,
Wash., and Otay Mesa, Calif. Other ports may
be approved by the agency.
Comments on the regulations can be submitted
at the
www.regulations.gov
by clicking on the "search regulations and
federal actions" box.” Pasting from Water
Gardening News
Gary Jones
Research Project Manager
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
1.215.822.8181x4023
www.aquariumpharm.com |
