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Whirling disease mini-symposium planned for AFS Annual Meeting A special mini-symposium on whirling disease will be held in conjunction with the American Fisheries Society (AFS) Annual Meeting in Lake Placid, NY. The symposium, “Whirling disease: What’s going on and what can we do about it?”, will feature presenters from across the country presenting current information concerning:
 The objective of the symposium will be to provide accurate, timely information about this sometimes confusing, “hot button” issue. Please plan to join us there. For more information, visit the AFS Annual Meeting web site at http://www.afslakeplacid.org or contact Kajsa Stromberg, Whirling Disease Initiative Outreach Program Coordinator, at
kstromberg@montana.edu or (406) 994-2550.Whirling Disease Initiative web site gets a facelift top The Whirling Disease Initiative’s web site has received a facelift and reorganization. First launched in 2005, the web site includes announcements, information about the Initiative’s research program and projects, and many other whirling disease-related resources. The Initiative strives to continually improve our services to government agencies, researchers, and the public. The reorganization of the web site should make it easier to navigate, and we will continue to update our growing clearinghouse of resources. Please check it out at http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu and give us your feedback. New parasite detections in Idaho’s Clearwater River drainage top The whirling disease parasite, Myxobolus cerebralis, was recently detected in new locations in the Clearwater River drainage of northern Idaho. In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Idaho Fish Health Center observed and confirmed the parasite in two rainbow trout reared by Sweetwater Aquaculture, a private aquaculture operation near Lapwai, Idaho. Subsequently, two feral rainbow trout collected by electrofishing from nearby Sweetwater Creek also tested positive for the parasite.  Sweetwater Creek is a tributary to Lapwai Creek which enters the Clearwater River 19 river kilometers (~12 miles) upstream from Lewiston, Idaho. These detections mark only the second time the parasite has been found in the Clearwater Basin. The first detection was in 1995 in the American River, a distant tributary to the South Fork of the Clearwater. Following the initial parasite detections, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) conducted a series of sentinel cage exposures on Sweetwater Creek, Lapwai Creek, and the Potlatch River. Pepsin/trypsin digest (PTD) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques were used to detect and confirm the presence of M. cerebralis. Three of the locations tested positive for the whirling disease parasite, while three were negative. Two of the positive locations were in Sweetwater Creek. The mean spore counts per head for these sentinel exposures were 2,450 and 470 for the upper and lower sites respectively. No myxospores were observed in any of the sentinel fish exposed on Lapwai Creek. Nested PCR techniques did identify the parasite in two of 11 sentinel fish from one Lapwai Creek site, just below the mouth of Sweetwater Creek. This infection was so slight as to be below detection limits for PTD methodology. A downstream site on Lapwai Creek and an upstream site were negative for the parasite. Compared to sentinel trials conducted at other locations in the upper reaches of both the Snake and Salmon Rivers in Idaho, the intensity of infection in the Lapwai Creek drainage was low. Sweetwater Aquaculture has been notified that trout produced at the facility are no longer permitted for sale to private ponds in Idaho. The facility owner was previously denied permission to sell trout in Montana by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and was prosecuted in 2003 for illegal transport and stocking of salmonids in Montana. The producer now has the opportunity to disinfect the facility and apply for further inspections in order to continue its business of stocking trout to private ponds. In the meantime, IDFG and the Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries Department will continue to monitor the conditions of the streams. With the limited distribution of the parasite, and low intensities of infection, it is suggested that the local environment is not conducive for disease conditions that might harm wild fish populations.
the USFWS Fish Health Centers By Craig Springer, USFWS top The signature catch-phrase says it best: “Conserving America’s Fisheries.” Those three words sum up the work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries Program, including the National Fish Hatchery System, Fish Technology Centers, Fish Health Centers, and the National Wild Fish Health Survey. Within the National Fish Hatchery System, some 70 hatcheries and seven Fish Technology Centers maintain brood stocks while researching new and more efficient methodologies employed in public and private hatcheries. Fish, plants, insects, and mussels are propagated for endangered species recovery efforts, for restoring depleted populations in the wild, or for recreational use in important sport fisheries. This work is bolstered by the science capabilities housed in the nine USFWS Fish Health Centers across the country. The core functions are the same for each Fish Health Center: perform routine monitoring and screening of fishes and other aquatic organisms in National Fish Hatcheries and Fish Technology Centers. It’s essential for these facilities to maintain certified disease-free status. Aside from these periodic screenings, Fish Health Centers are called upon by hatchery and technology center staff to find remedies to disease outbreaks. Some of the Fish Health Centers work for private aquaculture operations, through state departments of agriculture or state fish and game agencies to certify the private facilities.
Fish Health Centers employ state-of-the-art techniques and methods, and highly qualified people: veterinarians, and fish biologists with backgrounds in bacteriology, virology, and histology. As new conservation issues emerge in aquatic animal health, these specialists are there to face them. The scientists are crucial also to the advancement of science and the development of new aquatic animal drugs. They work closely with the USFWS Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership office in Bozeman, Montana, serving as coordinators in the Investigational New Animal Drug process. They help ensure that field trials in new aquatic animal drugs are properly conducted so that in the end, the rigors required by the Food and Drug Administration are adequately met, and new aquatic animal drugs can get on the market and in use, benefiting conservation and commerce. Healthy fish and healthy habitats lead to healthy people. The works of the Fish Health Centers contribute to resource conservation and economies based on aquaculture, and recreation and tourism, and provide a cohesive national perspective to the heath of aquatic organisms. To learn more about fish health, and a Fish Health Center near you, visit http://www.fws.gov/fisheries/nfhs/fhc/FHCcontact.htm Whirling Disease Initiative research grants awarded for 2006-2007 top
Looking for more information? Check out our BIBLIOGRAPHY! top For more whirling disease research information, visit http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu. Our searchable “Bibliography” contains a growing library of books, book chapters, journal articles, conference proceedings, dissertations, government documents, and technical reports.
The 12th Annual Whirling Disease Symposium was held in Denver, Colorado in early February this year, and it proved again to be a valuable gathering of scientists, managers, biologists, concerned members of the public, and students. Featuring 21 presentations over a day and a half, a poster session, three concurrent topical breakout sessions, and a panel discussion, the symposium was well attended with nearly 90 registered. “I was particularly pleased with the addition of the Friday morning ‘breakout sessions’ which focused on worm study, resistant trout research, and a review of the rough cut of the new whirling disease outreach video. The breakouts offered opportunities for questions and answers and discussion which aren’t easily afforded through the oral presentation process,” said Dave Kumlien, Executive Director of the Whirling Disease Foundation. Proceedings are available through the Whirling Disease Foundation. Call (406) 585-0860 or email whirling@mcn.net. The 13th Annual Whirling Disease Symposium is planned for 2007. Stay tuned for details. Myxozoan Session at International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health top The 2006 International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health (ISAAH) will be held in San Francisco, California in September. The meeting will feature a special session on myxozoans. The Myxozoan Session will provide a forum in which myxozoan researchers can share information and will encourage international collaboration. The special session will tentatively include submitted presentations and a round table discussion of current topics such as genome dynamics in myxozoa, life cycles and transmission strategies, epizootiology, novel techniques for diagnostics and control of myxosporean infections in aquaculture. For more information, visit the Myxozoan Network at http://www.myxozoa.org. Whirling disease continues to hurt Utah aquaculture industry as sales of trout, eggs dipped 29 percent in 2005  Whirling disease, a sometimes-fatal trout disease first found in Utah at the farm of former Utah Governor Michael Leavitt in 1991, continues to have an effect. The total value of trout sales in Utah last year was $540,000—down nearly 29 percent from 2004. In addition, six operations went out of business in 2005 because of the disease, say officials with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. The total number of Utah operations selling trout or eggs is 21, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Nationally, the total value of fish and eggs in 20 states totaled $74 million during 2005, an increase of four percent from the previous year. Idaho alone accounted for 51 percent of the total value of fish sold. The total value of trout eggs sales during 2005 was $5 million, an increase of six percent from the previous year. - Dawn House Reprinted with permission from The Salt Lake Tribune Montana’s Miles City State Fish Hatchery allowed limited quarantine: Hatchery will stock warmwater fish with careful precautions Unfortunately, even warmwater fish hatcheries are not immune to the trials and tribulations of whirling disease. Montana’s Miles City State Fish Hatchery is one of two warmwater hatcheries in Montana. A surprise discovery happened in November 2005, when the whirling disease parasite Myxobolus cerebralis was detected in rainbow trout raised at the hatchery as a food source for bass broodstock. The hatchery was immediately placed under quarantine and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks became concerned about the fates of thousands of walleye, bass, northern pike and pallid sturgeon planned for stocking from the hatchery the following spring. The Department decided to impose a limited quarantine that would allow stocking of the warmwater fish following careful disinfection and containment strategies. Following the M. cerebralis detection, all trout at the facility were destroyed. The hatchery’s staff then decided to discontinue using salmonids as a bass food source. There will no longer be any salmonids at the facility, and the Department is looking into other options to ensure biosecurity of the facility. The Department is also investigating the source of the parasite. It is still unclear how the parasite was introduced to the hatchery. It could have been introduced from the Yellowstone River in the hatchery’s surface water intake, or introduced by a bird. The trout were obtained from certified disease-free hatcheries in Montana as eyed eggs, which can be disinfected and transported safely, so it is unlikely that the parasite came in with the fish. Sentinel cages were deployed in the facility and in the Yellowstone River from Billings to Miles City. The Department followed standard protocols for detection of the parasite, including histological examinations at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. None of the fish from sentinel cages turned up positive for M. cerebralis, leaving the source of infection still unclear. We may never know what happened, and the hatchery is now focused on resecuring its disease-free status. Before stocking the bass, pike, and walleye from the hatchery, several precautionary processes will be in place. The fish will be dipped in a saltwater solution after being removed from the rearing ponds. Water used to transport the fish will be passed through two additional five-micron filters, and treated with ultraviolet light. The Department is confident these measures will ensure the parasite does not spread from the facility.  Jim Peterson, Montana Fish Health Coordinator, said, “It’s important to point out that this was the first detection of the whirling disease parasite in any of Montana’s state fish hatcheries, and it came as a big surprise when it turned up at one of our warmwater facilities.”Sentinel cages will be used in subsequent testing of the facility. After three negative results six months apart, the quarantine status will be reviewed and may be lifted. Peterson says, “Protection of our wild trout is paramount, and we’re confident the precautionary actions put in place at Miles City State Fish Hatchery will ensure that other fisheries are not put at risk from any fish stocked from the hatchery. Meetings and Conferences top Western Division American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting; May 15-19, 2006; Bozeman, Montana Federation of Fly Fishers Annual Conclave; July 25-29, 2006; Bozeman, Montana The 5th International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health; September 2-6, 2006; San Francisco, California National Partnership for the Management of Wild and Native Coldwater Fisheries, Board of Representatives Meeting; September 10, 2006; Lake Placid, New York American Fisheries Society 136th Annual Meeting; September 10-14, 2006; Lake Placid, New York “Whirling disease: What’s going on and what can we do about it?”, special symposium at AFS Annual Meeting; September 12, 2006; Lake Placid, New York For more updates and events, visit: http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu/events.asp Comments? Suggestions? Submissions? Is this newsletter helpful? Accurate? Informative? Please give us your comments and suggestions. We would also appreciate story ideas or article submissions. Simply e-mail Kajsa Stromberg, Outreach Program Coordinator, at kstromberg@montana.edu. |
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