Oysters can get herpes? In San Diego it's more likely than you think

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – It was a hot summer.

According to the National Weather Service, even the water in San Diego Bay reached up to 24 degrees on Tuesday.

Scientists at the Scripps Oceanography Center recently discovered that these heat waves accelerate the spread of a deadly herpes virus in oysters, San Diego's most popular seafood.

“So you'll see they're all here. These are the Pacific oysters. And they just arrived this morning,” said Ky Phan, one of the owners of Crab Hut, as she showed the inside of the walk-in freezer.

When Ky Phan started her family's seafood business, she wanted to support the local industry.

“I mean, we've been able to work with aquafarming here in San Diego. But the climate and weather here is a little hotter,” Phan said.

She now sources her live oysters from British Columbia.

“It's just the stability of the waters in British Columbia and we work with the farms there. We can produce a more consistent and seasonal product,” Phan said.

More importantly, the water is colder.

That's not the case here in San Diego.

Scripps Oceanography recently worked on a study showing that warmer water means a higher risk of herpes.

“And when we expose oysters to this virus at these higher temperatures, which are very common in San Diego Bay, basically more than half the year, they are susceptible to infection and death from the virus,” said Emily Kunselman, the study's lead author.

The oyster herpesvirus caused a mass death of oysters in San Diego in 2018 and 2020.

Since then, no significant amounts of the virus have been detected and it is not harmful to humans.

But with record temperatures in the region this summer, Scripps researchers are keeping a close eye on Pacific oysters and their more resilient wild counterparts.

“So wild oysters don't seem to be harboring this virus, or if they do, it's only in very, very small amounts that are undetectable. So our goal for the next few years is to apply for grants to conduct experiments to see how resistant the wild oysters actually are to this virus,” Kunselman said.

As for Phan, she will continue to use her trusted sources.

“We love what we do and we love eating this food. We just try to get the highest quality products,” Phan said.