Annesley fishery closed after deadly disease strikes fish

An Annesley fishery has closed after a deadly disease was identified.

The fishery at Newstead and Annesley Country Park is among four where fish have died from Koi herpesvirus (KHV).

The Fish Health Inspectorate said the disease had also been found at fisheries in Warwickshire and Essex

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It affects all varieties of common and ornamental carp and can result in large-scale mortalities, it added.

Mick Leivers, from the Newstead and Annesley Country Park, said: “It’s an endemic and results a lot of the time from people coming and placing fish in our waters once they outgrow household tanks.

“It is the equivalent of measles or small pox circulating around but for fish. They kept spawning with it over a period of a week and then it spread across all the carp.

“It is making us rethink what sort of fish we have swimming in our waters - because KHV only affects carp should we have less carp in the waters from now on?

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“It surfaced in June and we are getting rid of all the carp, we were hoping to reopen next week but it might be the week after.”

Sam Mulholland, of Parkers Fishery, in Warwickshire, said they had lost 150 fish since the outbreak in May. All have since been incinerated.

She said they would be shut for two weeks after the discovery by the government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).

The viral disease causes necrotic white or brown patches on the gills, rough patches on the skin and sloughing mucous and sunken eyes.

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All sites with the disease must be monitored for a year, following an outbreak, although some sites choose to cull and disinfect their stocks.

A spokeswoman for the inspectorate said it was a seasonal disease, especially when water temperatures were between 16 to 28C (60 to and 80F) but although temperatures had risen recently, there had not been the same number of cases as this time last year.

The affected fisheries where disease control points have been set up are: Church Lane Lake, Essex; Newstead and Annesley Country Park, Nottingham; Parkers Fishery Pools, West Midlands; Mawgan Porth Pools and Lake, Cornwall.

More when we have it.

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