Project: Effects of Age, Dose, and Environmental Stress on Development of Whirling Disease in Rainbow Trout

Primary Investigator: Elizabeth MacConnell
Project Summary: Preliminary results show that fish age and parasite doses are critical in the development of clinical whirling disease, and sub-clinical infections may be a significant factor in their over-winter survival. At one week of age, exposure to the highest dose of parasite is lethal, but young fish exposed after 13 weeks showed no symptoms. (1) In fish groups of ages 1 to 11 weeks, clinical signs of the disease became evident 5 weeks after high-dose exposure. (2) At the age of one week, after exposure to the highest dose, all fish expired and only one survived for 17 weeks. (3) After 13 weeks of age, no exposed fish showed clinical signs of whirling disease. (4) At 7 weeks of age, both stressed and unstressed fish showed clinical signs at the same time. (5) At age 5 weeks or less, the stamina of exposed fish was significantly less than unexposed fish.
Funding Period: 1997-1998
Final Report: MacConnell_97-98.pdf
Dataset(s) associated with this project:

There are no datasets associated with this project.