AFTER two years as the National Carp Control Plan Program Manager, Matt Barwick is leaving the role.
According to an article on the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation website, Mr Jamie Allnut will start as the National Carp Control Plan Program Manager from December.
Barwick’s departure comes amongst concerns that a plan to slash carp fish numbers in Australia’s waterways by infecting the pest-species with a herpes virus will be a one-hit wonder.
University of Sydney experts published the warning this week in Australian Zoologist and in an article on the University of Sydney website.
“The release of this herpes virus in our waterways will undoubtedly cause a single epidemic of herpesvirus disease resulting in massive deaths among carp,” said the study’s lead author Associate Professor Joy Becker of the University’s School of Life Environmental Sciences.
“However, there’s little evidence to suggest that we will see repeated outbreaks of a magnitude to counter the reproductive potential of the surviving carp.”
This conclusion is based on a review of evidence from around the world examining the impact of the koi herpesvirus (CyHV3) on common carp in natural and farmed environments.
Associate Professor Becker said that the likelihood of carp population being controlled by releasing the virus is significantly reduced due to herd immunity and the carp’s “remarkable fecundity”.
You can read the University of Sydney’s press release HERE, or watch the video below.
