Let me start by making two “statements” I do not value at all, but MUST remain my professional “party line”

1. Koi Herpes Virus HEATED survivors are “carriers for life” and WILL transmit KHV to other fish whenever they experience stress.

I cannot seem to kill this myth. First, we’re talking about HEATED survivors but that’s outside the psychological grasp of not-some-but-all folks. Second, KHV transmission is temperature-dependent NOT stress dependent.

You can stress them all you want at 65df and they will not shed or break. And you can stress them ALL YOU WANT at 87df and they will not shed or break.

But let’s just roll with that, since it won’t die in people’s minds, what with it being spit-out at every turn in every group.

2. You should destroy all koi that have been exposed to, infected with, or tested-positive for: KHV

All I’ll say about that is that: A million Leukemic and FIV-positive cats have loving homes because people stopped being so closed-minded.

I wrote this in 2003 and I don’t feel differently even to this day:

So, you saved your fish, what do you do with these survivors? Is it worth the pond keeping experience for ‘the remains’ of your former collection? Is it safe to get new fish? Can you show these fish?
When you save your fish from KHV, it raises all these questions.
I think people should save the survivors: How do you know that you’re not going to go out, after killing off the stragglers, and buy new KHV infected fish? In the current climate, you do not know this. So you could kill the fish with names, just to repopulate with fish which could put you through this all over again!
I think keeping a smaller group of survivors has it’s advantages in terms of their eventual growth. Underpopulated ponds are healthier, and the fish grow much larger in less time.
There are at least two ways to get new fish. You can heat the pond, and get all the new fish you want as long as the new fish are prepared for, acclimated to, and mixed at 87d F. I have mixed KHV and non KHV fish in a variety of circumstances and had ZERO transmission:
KHV post-heat survivors seem to be non infectious to other fish. I have mixed healthy non-exposed fish with post-heat KHV survivors at normal pond and tank temperatures without disease. It’s AS IF the post heat KHV survivors are cured. We don’t know this for sure so this might be the most risky way to get new fish.
SAFE: Actively infected fish can be added to healthy populations of fish as long as the pond or tank is maintained (for the minimum four to seven day period) at 87d F. I accidentally did this twice, and have done it intentionally many more times since. It was not until we got the KHV reports back that I discovered I’d added some KHV positive fish to healthy tanks. Since the tanks were at 87d F there was no transmission.
There are quite a few people who have mixed new fish in with their KHV survivors and NONE of them report any losses among the new fish. Now, that might be an issue for this year, and the statistic could change after a long cold winter. It could also be that the KHV survivors are truly negative, by either innate immunity or the heating process which might have saved them, or both. The jury is still out on that one.

I don’t think a person who knows they have KHV survivors or KHV infected fish should take them to shows. The only reason so many people and dealers take KHV infected fish to shows is because they don’t know the fish have KHV. YET.

I have a growing collection of “post-heat KHV survivors” at my home. I think they are great fish and they’ve been nothing less than perfectly healthy. When I want to add new fish, I simply heat the pond to a whopping 84-87d F and then add the intended new fish*. This is what it ‘is’ to be KHV infected in the aftermath. And I can live with it, happily.
*after a short quarantine and biopsy.