Two Ohio departments join forces to protect the state’s fish

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources have joined forces to protect Ohio’s fish populations, both wild and farmed, from the fish disease Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia.

VHS is a disease that must be reported to the Department of Agriculture under state law. It is not harmful to humans and cannot be transferred from fish to humans through consumption. It is believed to have been introduced to the Great Lakes region through invasive species in water exchanged from ship ballast.

Due to the recent confirmation of VHS in the Mansfield Clear Fork Reservoir, agriculture Director Robert Boggs modified the current emergency proclamation, which prohibits the intrastate transportation, sale or distribution of 28 fish species susceptible to VHS out of the affected region, to include Clear Fork Reservoir along with the current area in northern Ohio.

The proclamation, originally issued in May 2008, also has been revised to include the ban of intrastate distribution of VHS susceptible bait fish, living or dead, along with living fish and nondisinfected live eggs that are used for fish production. Nonfertilized eggs, however, may be used as bait in the tributaries of Lake Erie.