A previously-unknown virus distantly related to Covid is "strongly associated" with mass die-offs of farmed Pacific oysters in BC, researchers have found.

The virus showed up in about two-thirds of the dead and dying oysters the research team collected during a mass die-off on two oyster farms in BC in 2020. Wild oysters collected near the farms weren't infected, hinting at a possible link between the virus and the mass die-offs. The virus — Pacific oyster Nidovirus 1 — is specific to oysters, and doesn't pose a health risk to humans.

"We have not demonstrated a causative effect between this virus and mortality at this point, but they're highly associated," said Curtis Suttle, a study co-author and professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, botany, microbiology and immunology, a

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