A fish with viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS). Historically, VHS was associated mostly with freshwater salmonids in western Europe Photo: AnPD-USGOV

The Lake Erie Center at the University of Toledo, US, has been awarded a federal grant to study viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS).

The Lake Erie Center will receive over $209,000 to fund a two-year study of the disease.

Center director Carol Stepien said that, among other things, a research team would try to develop a rapid detection system capable of confirming VHS in a fish sample within two hours.

VHS is an infectious viral disease that has been responsible for several fish death episodes in the Great Lakes, including one that killed thousands of fish in central Lake Erie in 2006.

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