Red Sea Diving

Taba Heights Hyatt hotel is like a mini village

I haven't posted in a while as I've recently returned from holidaying in Egypt, learning to dive in the Red sea. As a newly qualified PADI open water diver, I now feel the urge to don some scuba gear and get closer to my koi, but I'm not sure if they would appreciate it. On second thoughts perhaps not, as although I wore a wet suit and the water temperature rarely gets much cooler in the Red sea, it was still a very comfortable 24C.

I stayed in a little resort called Taba Heights that has literally sprung up over night on the edge of the Gulf of Aqaba, on a barren piece of land that backs onto the Sinai mountains. The area is a beautiful man made oasis of a handful of five star hotels and a golf course, which makes it perfect for relaxing but the real attraction is to be found on the reefs just off the beach. The variety and abundance of life in the sea is truly breath taking and something everyone should experience at least once. It's an exhilarating experience although at first it felt odd not having a sheet of glass between me and the fish. The instructors from the dive school, which is sponsored by the National Geographic, explained that we should be careful not to damage the environment as it is a protected area, but the greatest threat is not from divers but from pollution from nearby ports and fish farms.

Taba Heights is very close to the Israeli border and the city of Eilat which has many fish farms in the area, mostly for food fish but inland they do grow ornamental fish. I wasn't able to visit so I don't know if they farmed koi there or not but I have heard that scientists have been working there on a vaccine for KHV, and helped develop the process that MagNoy currently use to inoculate against the disease. Whether or not you agree with their approach, personally I think it's early days yet before anyone can claim KHV free koi for life, but their top quality koi are now very good. With their winter temperatures more like our summer in the UK, it's easy to see how the koi grow so quickly. Coming back to rainy Britain is quite a shock and makes you realise how short our growing season is without heating.

Snorkelling off the beach I spied this Giant Clam

This holiday has made me more conscious of environmental issues, especially the threats to coral reefs some of the most delicate and important ecosystems on the planet. Some of this complexity can be thought about when compared to our koi ponds, with which we only have to provide the right conditions for one species, whereas in the seas many thousands of species rely on favourable conditions that nobody has control over.

Yumekoi Euthanize Koi in the Fight Against KHV

To follow the recent Yumekoi update these shocking before and after photos have been posted on the Yumekoi site. It's very sad and such a waste considering the care and effort that they had been given but necessary. These koi had to be euthanized, even though they may be healthy, to remove any doubt that KHV is still present. Since the Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) outbreak in June, Yumekoi have done everything to prevent the virus from spreading and to reassure their customers. Mike Snaden especially has acted admirably by being open about all the facts, and I am sure that when this dreadful business is all over peoples support for them and confidence in their koi will remain undiminished. It's still a difficult time for them emotionally and financially, so if you would like to help them out Isle of Ely Koi are collecting donations by email at yumekoi@isleofelykoi.co.ukmail.

KHV Vaccine Starts Trials

A British pharmaceutical company, Henderson Morley plc have announced that they have been working on producing a vaccine against KHV (Koi Herpes Virus) over the past 10 months and from these initial studies are now ready to start field trials. They believe that within 6 months with the help of the Internationally renowned Hagerman Aquaculture Research Institute, they can produce a working vaccine that they can then perfect and licence for use.

The company has a lot of expertise in developing products for the pharmaceutical industry, some of them for human virus diseases so are confident of reaching their goals with KHV. They see KHV as an opportunity to develop a product that will benefit a growing number of koi keepers, breeders and fisheries around the world, as well as a fairly quick return for them because animal medicines don't have to undergo such a lengthy trial period as for humans.

This is very encouraging news but a vaccine may still be along time coming before it's available to all of us. It's very probable that as well as the high costs and methods of administering the vaccine that only koi breeders, dealers and vets will require it anyway. One of the greatest challenges to producing a vaccine against KHV is to immunize the koi without exposing them directly to the virus. The Israeli's have developed a type of vaccination that creates immunity in their koi by introducing them to a weakened strain of KHV, and then destroy it by raising the temperature for a while. This does seem to work but nobody really knows 100% if any of the koi could still be carriers or develop symptoms if reinfected years later. With this in mind we shouldn't take any chances and always quarantine new koi and ensure bio-security measures at all times.

Yumekoi KHV Update

The latest news from Yumekoi is that they should have received the test results from CEFAS by now and are euthanizing all infected koi. Since Mike Snaden took blood samples from all their koi, and their customers koi that may have come into contact with the KHV outbreak which occurred after the BKKS National, they have had to wait for the results due to CEFAS being overloaded with work. Because of the backlog of samples waiting to be tested CEFAS (Centre for Fisheries, Environment and Aquaculture Science) have had to allocate extra staff to the duty of testing. With CEFAS being the only test centre in the UK that uses the reliable Elisa test that identifies KHV anti-bodies, it's been a long and anxious wait for everybody involved. Yumekoi expect to get all the results back by today, which could decide the fate of some very high quality koi.

This has been probably the worst year on record of reported cases of KHV in the UK, mostly in fisheries but what was once an almost unheard of disease is probably the most talked about topic in koi circles. The scale of the problem in the UK is unknown as some of the cases my go unreported due to the fact that there is no known cure and that there aren't any regulations yet in place to do so. A case recently when men were caught by customs trying to smuggle carp into the country from France in a van, shows how difficult controlling the spread of this disease can be. It's expected that KHV will become a notifiable disease some time early next year and rules governing the movement and sale of live animals within the UK are set to tighten.

All around the world there are conflicting opinions about what to do about KHV and while a reliable vaccine is being worked on some countries see it as less of a problem. Recently scientists in Australia revealed that they have considered releasing KHV into the wild populations of carp as a way to control their numbers, as they are seen as a pest. As KHV only kills carp this would be effective but I don't like the idea of fixing one problem with another. Not all carp are killed by the virus with some acquiring immunity but at the same time being possible carriers to infect others. This would rely on man's intervention not to spread the disease any further which has already been shown to be fallible.