August 21, 2025 –A previously unknown virus in farmed Pacific oysters may hold the key to mass die-offs in the multimillion-dollar industry, according to research from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada.
“We’ve recently seen annual mass die-offs in B.C. and elsewhere of Pacific oysters,” Kevin Zhong, a research associate in UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, said. “Often, we don’t know the cause.”