Indonesian Experience on the Outbreak of Koi Herpesvirus
In Koi and Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Agus Sunarto¹ and Akhmad Rukyani<sup>2

1</sup>Fish Health Research Laboratory, Jl. Ragunan 20, Jakarta, Indonesia
²Directorate of Fish Health and Environment, B building, IV Floor, Jl. Harsono RM No. 3, Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Koi herpesvirus (KHV) is a new emerging disease known to cause gill and skin damage in koi and carp (Cyprinus carpio). The disease suspected to have been introduced into Indonesia through importation of koi from Hong Kong. It is currently occurring in Indonesia since March 2002 starting in the area of Blitar in East Java. Since then it has been spreading rapidly throughout Java Island, Bali, southern part of Sumatera, East Kalimantan and Central Sulawesi. The disease cause very high mortality (80-95%) to both koi and common carp with estimated losses of more than 150 billion rupiahs (equal to US$15 M) as of December 2003. The outbreaks occurred after heavy rain, movement of adult fish to other ponds or transport of fry to other areas. This phenomenon leads to the hypothesis that a virus was latent and became active under these particular circumstances, such as stress of transportation and handling and environmental changes, particularly water temperature fluctuations. The infected fish were lethargic, showed loss of balance and gasped for air. Common gross sign including sloughing off the epithelium with loss of mucus and rough appearance of the skin or showed a blister-like lesion on the skin, haemorrhages of operculum, fins, tail and abdomen, and severe gill damages. Currently, the diagnosis of the disease was based on clinical signs (diagnosis level 1) and PCR detection (diagnosis level 3). To prevent the spread of the outbreaks to other islands, the government of Indonesia issued Ministerial Decrees that declared Java and Bali Islands as an isolated area of the disease and moving koi and carp from Java and Bali Islands to other islands are strictly prohibited or should follow quarantine check for KHV. In addition, importing koi and common carp is permitted only from free KHV countries. A Task Force consisted of international, national and local experts was organized to conduct emergency assessment of the disease situation through epidemiological investigations, field observations and laboratory examinations. Information on KHV was disseminated widely across the country with the use of TV, radios, newspapers, posters, pamphlets and technical guidelines. In farm level, biosecurity concept was applied to reduce the risk of KHV outbreak. The implementation of government regulations pertaining the outbreak and key components of biosecurity is discussed in this paper.