After devastating France's Pacific oyster industry, herpes now threatens Australia
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Herald Business Journal] - December 16, 2014
MELBOURNE, Australia, Herpes has devastated 26 percent of France’s oyster production since the summer of 2008.
Halfway around the world in Australia, the virus killed 10 million oysters in three days.
Researchers suspect climate change risks compounding the losses.
The virus was identified in New Zealand in 2010 and can be found in three estuaries in Australia’s New South Wales state. It has also been detected in wild Pacific oysters in the state’s Brisbane Water estuary. In the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, the virus killed 10 million oysters within three days, according to University of Sydney’s Whittington.
Pacific oysters are only a small part of the New South Wales industry, whereas South Australia and Tasmania produce the Pacific variety almost exclusively, according to Graham Mair, program manager of production innovation at the Adelaide-based Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre...
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