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Re: NFC: DP returning fish to the wild
The issue with disease is not an increase or decrease in resistance. The
problem with disease is when fish from an aquarium population have
developed immunity (resistance if you want to use that term) to diseases
that the wild populations have never encountered. When you toss the
domesticated fish in with the wild population they are exposed to
strains of bacteria and virii that they have never encountered before.
Both animals have perfectly functional immune systems but the wild one's
immune system does not know how to fight the new invader. In most cases
it should figure it out soon enough to only suffer some minor loss, but
there is a very real possibility the introduced bacteria can wipe out
the population. This has happened before with turtles, and a couple of
years ago there was a thread about it on rec.pets.herp. Personally, I
feel like the wild population would not likely suffer a major loss, but
with the pressures our ecosystem already faces this sort of added burden
can cause catastrophe. Imagine if the native flagfish all survive the
new invader, but all the pygmy sunfish fail to produce any antibody.
Then a population that was not even figured into the equation is gone.
Oh well, just my two cents.
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