Biology and diagnostic tests for viruses affecting wild and farmed sturgeon

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provided $24,432 from the Partnership Fund in 2016 to support a diagnostic testing initiative by the United States Geological Survey, Western Fisheries Research Center. Under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, Fisheries and Oceans Canada protects listed sturgeon species and Canada and the U.S.A. share responsibility for sturgeon recovery under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Tests and tools will be developed to help identify diseases in wild and cultured salmon to determine if these are threats to the recovery of at-risk North American sturgeon species. In North America, aquaculture is used to rebuild at-risk sturgeon populations, and globally it is growing to deliver caviar to a market with an international trade ban on wild sturgeon roe. The deliverables are tools for effective sturgeon disease management, specifically effective laboratory tests to determine the presence of two sturgeon viruses - a putative type 2, sturgeon herpesvirus (AciHV-2) and a sturgeon NCLDV (sNCLDV) referred to as namao virus (NV).

Project Number: CA2016.36
Year: 2016
Partner: United States Geological Survey, Western Fisheries Research Center
Principal Investigator(s): Gael Kurath, Eveline Emmenegger and Rachel Breyta
Eco-region: Pacific