Abstract

Over the last few years, Largemouth Bass Virus (LMBV) has been associated with fish kills in many southeastern states. Monitoring across the United States was initiated to discover the full distribution of the virus. To date, the impacts of the virus are still uncertain.

The most important weapon needed to control or prevent fish diseases is knowledge. A total of 9,118 samples have been analyzed for virus. Seven hundred seventy-two samples were positive for virus with the total percent positive of 8.5 percent. Survey information is available to all interested parties on the Internet at: http://wildfishsurvey.fws.gov.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all of our state, federal, and non-governmental partners for aiding in this large-scale ongoing sampling effort. Their assistance is greatly appreciated.