Project: Laboratory Investigations of Mountain Whitefish Prosopium Willliamsoni Susceptibility to Myxobolus cerebralis

Primary Investigator: Elizabeth MacConnell
Project Summary: This study tested the susceptibility of different ages of mountain whitefish to doses of 1,000 or 10,000 parasites per fish. Mortality was observed in 3 and 7 weeks post-hatch mountain whitefish during exposure to doses of 10,000 triactinomyxons/fish. Histological examination showed that numerous parasites had penetrated the epithellum. Few whitefish, including unexposed controls, survived to the end of the study. Clinical signs of whirling disease were first observed 9 weeks post-exposure, compared to 5 weeks in rainbow trout. Vegetative and sporogonic stages of M. cerebralis and inflammatory lesions were seen in cartilaginous tissues (primarily spine) of whitefish collected 5 months post-exposure. Based on the limited number of survivors in this study, whitefish are susceptible to infection and the development of whirling disease.
Funding Period: 1998-1999
Final Report: MacConnell_98-99.pdf
Dataset(s) associated with this project:

There are no datasets associated with this project.