| Interesting question. The boo birds are very close to the chicken littles in their outlook on things. I see these folks a lot like PETA, you just can't make them happy. If the fur coats get lost , they complain about the treatment of live beef. If the industry comes up with cloned synthetic beef, they are still not happy because it is still not vegaterian? So the issue was never the fur, never the treatment of cattle and never source of animal flesh, it was that we are not all eating nuts and berries! I know, crazy example. But it does point to the futility of appeasing emotionally driven personalities.
Personally, I think that so much has to be in place FOR serious problems at a koi show that the odds are remote of having a problem. The carrier must be a show fish, the carrier must be owned by an exhibitor who never heard of KHV, just bought a KHV carrier or doesn't care. The fish in question then somehow has to get to the show with having killed the exhibitors collection and then be in the transmission mode where it is actively shedding virus, then that virus needs to jump to another tank , through all the various protocol barriers, without having killed it's own tank mates???
Listen, we keep out koi OUTDOORS. Yet every week someone in the USA looses their koi to predators. Otters, herons, kingfishers, turtles, snakes, raccoons , eagles, alligators and even domestic cats. Still we leave our koi outside at risk.
Every week thousands of koi hobbyists do water changes. Yet a percentage will kill their fish doing this as the chlorine, chloramine content will be just too high. But we still 'recklessly' keep doing water changes.
Every day, a percentage of hobbyists overfeed their fish. As a result we have ovarian tumors, early deaths, disease and bacterial infections. But we still feed our fish.
KHV carriers are a risk. I would suggest that facts and statistics since 1995 suggest it is a very small risk. The boo birds and chicken littles would have you believe it is a great risk. The facts do not favor their point of view.
Only precautions can reduce risk- not eliminate it . JR |