Division I.1 General requirements

When targeted surveillance in wild populations is required in accordance with the second paragraph of point 2 of Part I of Annex V to Directive 2006/88/EC, the number and geographical distribution of sampling points shall be determined to obtain a reasonable coverage of the F1constituent GB territory, zone or compartment. The sampling points shall also be representative of the different ecosystems where the wild susceptible populations are located, namely, river systems and lakes.

Targeted surveillance shall rely on the regular monitoring of sites holding susceptible species. Sites shall be monitored when water temperatures have reached levels that are permissive for the development of the disease (> 15 °C) and no sooner than 2 weeks from the date such temperatures have been reached. Any diseased fish or fish showing abnormal behavior that are found on the site shall be sampled and tested.

Whenever possible, fish that have been kept for a prolonged time period at the virus permissive temperature range, namely 2 to 3 weeks at 15 °C to 26 °C, shall be sampled. The following approach may, however, be accepted:

1. (a)

   to collect a sub-population at transfer from winter to summer ponds and hold the fish in the same water body as the summer pond until minimum temperature requirements have been obtained, or

2. (b)

   to collect samples at harvesting or during other fish handling as part of normal management practices. If possible, samples shall be collected between 24 and 72 hours after such management practices to enhance the chance of KHV detection.

When farms or wild populations have to be subject to health inspections or sampled more than once per year, the intervals between the health inspections or collections of samples shall be as long as possible within the season when the water temperature is likely to reach its highest annual points without exceeding the limit of 28 °C.

All production units, such as ponds and tanks, must be subject to health inspections for the presence of dead, weak or abnormally behaving fish.

Cyprinus carpio and its hybrids, such as Cyprinus carpio × Carassius auratus, shall be collected when present in the farm.

The fish to be collected as samples shall be selected as follows:

1. (i)

   if weak, abnormally behaving or freshly dead but not decomposed fish are present, such fish must be selected;

2. (ii)

   if more than one water source is utilised for fish production, fish representing all water sources must be included for sampling;

3. (iii)

   the fish selected must include fish collected in such a way that all parts of the farm, as well as all year classes, are proportionally represented in the sample.