Australia has declared war on Common Carp infesting rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin in southeastern Australia, and will use the herpes virus to wipe out at least 95 percent of the pesky fish in the next 30 years.

Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is also known as European carp and is included in the list of the world's 100 most invasive species. It is, however, considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

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Australia's declaration of biological warfare on this vulnerable species is being financed by a US$11 million budget. The federal government said resorting to the herpes virus to infect the carp population is the only way to get rid of this bottom-dwelling, mud-sucking fish. An Australian law already orders fishermen to kill carp they capture.

European carp competes with native fish and adversely affects the sustenance of life because they denude river beds of nutrients needed by other aquatic animals. They also degrade water quality by stirring-up sediment from riverbeds as they feed. The muddied waters prevent other fish species that rely on sight from detecting prey. Carp are also unpopular as food for humans.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization will destroy the fish by releasing a carp-specific herpes virus that will only kill carp and not other organisms.

The virus will attack the carp's skin and kidneys until the fish dies. The government expects some 95 percent of the carp population in the Murray-Darling Basin to be slaughtered within 30 years.

Christopher Pyne, Australia's minister of industry, innovation, and science, described the common carp as "a nasty pest in our waterways and makes up 80 percent of fish biomass in the Murray-Darling Basin."

The government is already planning to tackle the most gruesome outcome of this type of warfare: how to get rid of millions of dead carp.

TagsCommon Carp, carp, European carp, Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization, Christopher Pyne