| Bob Behrent | ||||||||||||
| What was it John Wayne said? By Bob Behrent, Flanders, NJ In my business, we manufacture an electronic component and it has nothing to do with koi. I frequently do technical training sessions for sales people and distributors to increase the knowledge so everyone involved is comfortable and selling more products. There are a few sayings I like to use in my Power Point training sessions to justify why the attendees are there. Of course we all know the old “Knowledge is Power “one, but I use three others. I quote Tom Peters, the motivational speaker, who says, “Learn something new every day.” That one is pretty good. My own phrase, presented on a slide with a huge male, antlered deer and it says, ”Knowledge is were the big bucks are.” Not bad, but my favorite comes from “the Duke”, John Wayne, from an old WWII movie called The Sands of Iwo Jima. In it, he said, “Life is tough…and it’s even tougher when you’re stupid.” So, as one of the hobbyist-attendees in the group gathered at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Athens, GA. I was there to make my life not so tough and hopefully come out a little smarter. As it turned out, the Duke would have been proud of me. The three-day course was entitled “Koi Health Management” and was held at the University of Georgia from February 11 to 13. From the moment Vicky Vaughan overviewed the course and gave lab instructions to the group gathered at the university. I knew from this beginning this was not only going to be informative but also extremely valuable to all in attendance. Vicky is co-director of the SPF Aquaculture Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine. She spends her working day working for the betterment of all our koi health interests. Even though she tossed a few insults at New Jersey, she certainly knows her stuff. (Good thing Tony Soprano wasn’t attending) Vicky was involved in the development of the relatively new Tri-Cide Neo antibacterial dip developed at UGA. Subsequent discussions concerning the use of this medication as a dip or a spray-on treatment for wounds or ulcers confirmed it’s great success rate if used according to directions. The spray-on technique was new to me. It would appear to be less stressful to the fish and is desirable for those situations where a dip period may just push your finny friend over the edge. So who were the attendees? It broke down to 50% retail/wholesale business people, 40% hobbyists and 10% licensed veterinarians. But here is the neat thing. The retailer/wholesaler group ranged from beginners in new businesses to the long-time experienced; the hobbyists were also from low experience to advanced. But interestingly, there were veterinarians attending to learn about fish medicine from their peers with advanced experience. Some of these professionals had little fish experience and saw the need emerging in this field. To their credit they anteed up the dollars and broke away from their practice to expand their knowledge of the profession. In order to support the growth of the koi hobby and industry this is what we need: more properly trained retail /wholesale people and more available professional medical availability. I believe this session helped accomplished this. Better education for the hobbyist enables healthier and better-maintained koi collections both for one’s self and by assisting the novices in the growing koi-hobby. And, by the way, where were you? And hey, retail/wholesale people, “This is where the big bucks are!” The roster of speakers in addition to Ms. Vaughan was impressive. The koi world’s icon Erik Johnson of Georgia, DVM; Helen Roberts, DVM of Buffalo, NY; Branson Richie, DVM, PhD, University of Georgia; Joanne Maki, DVM, PhD, University of Georgia and Steven Hernandez-Divers, DVM, PhD, University of Georgia. Dr. Helen Roberts began the first lecturer as a tag team with Dr. Erik Johnson. The topics were “Water Quality” and “Noninfectious Diseases and Treatments”. Dr. Roberts began and after a few slides I knew it was going to be a great presentation. In one of the first few slides, which were exhibiting the doctor’s credentials and prior experience, a photo of her university days depicted her with her arm beyond the elbow in the south end of a mid-sized bovine. Now that’s funny and really down to earth! Thank goodness we all just deal with fish. Dr, Roberts turned the podium over to Dr. Erik Johnson who continued with Parasites, Bacteria and Fungi. Doc Johnson has been a pioneer in koi medicine and treatment and his knowledge and experience dwarf most others by a long shot. Doc imparts his vast knowledge in a concise, realistic and many times a humorous manner. His handouts and printed matter are invaluable ‘keepers’ for future information. Other major topics on the agenda were “Triage, Diagnostic Procedures. KHV Symtomatology, KHV Viruses, Managing Disease Outbreaks, Environmental Toxicity, What’s New In The Industry and Case Interaction. What was most valuable in all the lectures was that the attendees were encouraged to ask questions, share experiences, both failures and successes, while the speakers were on the particular subjects. This allowed for more complete coverage of the subject matter and we all learned from each other as well. Then, at the end of each day a round-table Q&A and discussion filled in any information gap. Lab time was the highlight for me and from the conversations most others as well. We honed our techniques in gill and body scraping for parasites and gill snips to search and identify for those hiding little buggers. We attempted to develop the skill of drawing blood for serology testing for viruses. This was not as easy as it sounds. The high quality microscopes afforded by the university were much more sophisticated than my $60.00 one at home, but they both serve the same purpose—find those bugs. And we did. Anesthesia methods, surgery prep and methods euthanasia and necropsy were also on the agenda. (Sushi for lunch anyone?) Dr. Hernandez-Divers demonstrated his developed technique using endoscopy on a subject catfish. His method allows for minimally invasive observation, surgery and or biopsy of fish. Heretofore, kidney, liver or other internal biopsies required a dead fish. Now, a fish can be biopsied, examined completely inside as if by necropsy, revived and returned to the water. The video-views of this extremely precision equipment, showing the tiniest of surgical instruments as accessories to perform procedures on a live fish were amazing. The other veterinarians in the class tried the procedure as well. (We shaky-handed laymen were off-limits to the expensive equipment. No sense of humor here). Some referred to its similarity as if watching a video game being played. I must say, the catfish subject had better coloration and skin-pattern design on the inside than on the outside. Probably the most important lectures and discussion was the subject of KHV. (Koi Herpes Virus) This disease literally burns the skin off the fish, causes necrosis of the gills and destroys internal organs. Dr. Branson Richie and his team at UGA have researched this killer of entire koi populations and are now at the point where a vaccine can be developed. Let me repeat. Dr. Richie is at the point where a vaccine can be developed! All it takes is money. Here’s some background: Dr. Richie was instrumental in development of vaccines for deadly bird viruses. The pet bird-owner community and retailers had some choices: Wait until the poultry industry got involved and restrictions on importing and governmental bureaucratic red tape for approvals and testing of the vaccine were imposed. Or, cough up some money from the pet bird owners and industry for a vaccine. The latter was accomplished. Our nation eats certain birds and fish. So the FDA becomes crucially involved if the animals are to be vaccinated are for food. And this requires a lot of time and testing as well as a lot more money. What we don’t need, is delays in vaccines for our precious koi pets and business inventories. The government has relaxed requirements on vaccines for non-food animals. So what do we do? Simple. Send Money! Doc Johnson gave a simple equation. If 5000 people gave $100.00 each the vaccine could be on the market in one year. Now, you say, “Wow that’s more than I can afford.” But what is the value of your fish; your entire population? OK, so you have a one hundred gallon pond and two small koi. Ten bucks, twenty-five bucks, anything at all will bring the killer of our present and future koi closer to an end. How to Donate: Individuals may make direct donations to the University of Georgia. Be sure to mark the FOR section of the check with the specific area of research: “Comparative Medicine/Koi Health” (Also put "Koi Health" in the "for" line) Mail checks to: University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Attention: Fran Contrell Athens, Georgia 30602, USA If you’d like to participate in a major fundraising effort which donates 100% of funds directly to University of Georgia as above, and you’d like to understand why this is so very important, please click here: http://www.koifoundation.com SITE NAVIGATION
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