KHV RESEARCH in The United States

[luke frisbee]

What are you trying to do to prevent khv?
Have you checked out how well the vaccine that the israelis have developed?
Is it effective at keeping the fish vaccinated from becoming sick from KHV?
Do vaccinated fish transmit the disease to healthy non-exposed fish?
if there is a vaccine why aren't you embracing it as an effective means to protecting koi in the US....surely anyone with high-end fish, or fish they just care about would have a vet come out and vaccinate them all.
if The "Foundation" in the US has carried out studies on the Israeli vaccine what have they find out?
if not, why not? ..it is all about a cure, right?

[junglegeorge12]

Of course not luke, it is also about who gets to sell the pharmaceutical solution. Israel, Jungle Labs, or EA or someone else?But shhhh, thats not the point. hehe

I do not think they have had time to evaluate the answers to all your questions luke. Those things take time to do.

[Arthur]

Luke,

There is KHV vaccine research ongoing in the US.

I cannot answer all your questions because most is yet to be uncovered. What I can say is that a vaccine will not be a total solution.

First, the immune system of koi has a "very short memory", meaning that a single vaccine dose will not protect the fish for very long, the best I have heard is "several months". That means that to keep you koi protected you will need ro administer the vaccine 2-3 time per year. I understand that to minimize the impact of regular vaccination, there is research about vreating an oral vaccine.

Second, there is the question of cost. If the cost per dose is just a few dollars, I can see serious dealers jumping on the bandwagon and vaccinating there fish. A higher cost would make it prohibitive by raising the price of vaccinated fish above what the market will bear (think tosai, the vast majority of koi sold in the US).

Third, will watergarderners continue the vaccination regime over the years? I think at this time it is too early to say, but if it is as easy as feeding a special food for 3 days twice a year, maybe.

[marco]

Thanks for your light Arthur, but a have a question, normaly oral vaccination increase the production of Ig "A" with a hight specifity to the virus but with a low time immunity memory.
Does the KHV is enough stable to imagine such a vaccination or does the oral vaccination allows production of Ig circulating?
Thanks

[bekko]

I believe someone said that the Israeli's are working with a live vaccine. That being the case, it would not be allowed into the US.

My gut feeling is that in 10 years we will not be talking about vaccines, but may have a better certification program.

-steve

[RayJordan]

I'll try to respond to a few of these questions. Please realize I am not a science guy but have seen a lot of information both published and unpublished about KHV in my role as head of AKCA - Project KHV fund raising committee and also a member of Project KHV Steering committee.

There is a lot more KHV research happening in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Isreal, and other places than most people realize. Most data is yet unpublished because it is not yet completed. Research projects include numerous vaccine studies, developing new and better KHV tests, latency testing, etc. Just because you dont read about these studies does not mean they are not happening.

Information about the research project AKCA - Project KHV is supporting at NCSU vet school and other links to published KHV research can be found on our website by going to www.akca.org and clicking on the link to Project KHV. We are actively seeking additional KHV research projects to support. We decided early on not to make research contributions without the researcher agreeing to utilize our contributions directly for costs of KHV research. No overhead which is the majority of the costs of most reseach may be taken from our contributions. Also we pay only in installments based on actual research progress against goals set by researcher prior to our 1st contribution. No progress or accountability we stop making contributions.

Real progress will take some time and a significant amount of money. If you want to help us fight KHV you can do two things right now.

#1 Quarantine all koi coming into your pond/s as per temperture, time, and other suggestions to break the cycle of KHV infections.

#2 Make a personal donation and ask your club or organization to make a contribution to KHV research.

Contributions to AKCA - Project KHV can be made by sending a check to AKCA - Project KHV, 15514 Elm Park, San Antonio, TX 78247

Many thanks to all that have already made a contribution and to Brian & Dinh who have been super about supporting our efforts including allowing us to utiize their auction site for special donated items like the Momotaro Sanke donated by Keirin Koi going on right now.

[Arthur]

Marco,

I am not a researcher and cannot answer your specific question. I just shared what I learned from talking directly to people that are actively involved with KHV research. Keep in mind that research is ongoing and most still unpublished as Jordan mentioned.

[maryland_ponder]

I dont know about the rest of the koi owners on this planet but I for one would feel better if I knew who is doing the research & what specific avenue of research each program is investigating. I would say a "Koi publication" could ask around & do some research to find this out. I'm not so concerned as to whether the research is ready for publication. When its done I'm sure we will hear about it. Knowing that NCSU is one of the organizations doing research makes me feel somewhat better.

[Regenmeneer]

I copied some questions I have from the other thread. Hope someone will be able to answer some of them.

I believe the method they used a few years ago in Israël was to inject the koi with a weakened version of KHV and then put them in a heating cycle, the same we would do nowadays to get koi over KHV when infected.

Is this still the method they use? And would this method qualify as immunization becuase of the heating? Sort of sounds like making them sick and then curing them to me, not sure if this is the same as immunizing?

Also, would a koi immunized against KHV be identifialble as such compared to carrier or sick koi when using a pcr or blood test? I know in the EU some immunizations are forbidden for animals because then it cannot be identified as sick or immunized.

Regenmeneer

[RayJordan]

I hope this response is received in the spirit it is intended. Research takes time and money. I believe the questions asked on this thread are genuine and well intended. I do get some questions that seem to have other motives/effects either intended or unintended. I guess that is just the reality of projects such as AKCA - Project KHV. Some assume a good faith effort and want to be part of the solution. Others assume the opposite and seek to discourage.

Of course there are hundreds of unanswered questions concerning KHV. I understand the desire to have more facts about khv and KHV research but much of the data is unavailable and/or unknown. Also, please consider what serious legitimate scientist would post in depth data about their on going research projects on an internet message board.

I believe progress is being made and we can all be part of the solution/s. When more information becomes available it will be published/announced.