Project: Field and Laboratory Evaluation for Whirling Disease using a Novel Polymerase Chain Reaction Diagnostic Assay and Assessing Risk of Whirling Disease becoming Established in Wisconsin

Primary Investigator: Daniel Sutherland
Project Summary: This study emphasized class A trout streams of the Coulee Region near La Crosse. No myxosporeans were recovered from brook and brown trout. Myxosporeans from local fish (including Myxobolus spp from six species of fish) did not cross react with the Hedrick-Andree PCR assay for Myxobolus cerebralis. Oligochaete diversity in Coulee Region trout streams is low, perhaps reflecting impacts of agriculture and reclamation. T. tubifex represented about 50% of all oligochaetes recovered at each site. Seasonal data suggests that reproduction is concentrated in late winter and early spring. Pure cultures of five species of oligochaetes have been established. Also, whirling disease was not found in fish examined from the Au Sable River (a tributary of Lake Huron) in lower Michigan, which had tested positive in 1996. However, the Mainstee River (a Lake Michigan tributary) that parallels the Au Sable was found to be whirling disease positive near a private trout hatchery.
Funding Period: 1997-1998
Final Report: Sutherland_97-98.pdf
Dataset(s) associated with this project:

There are no datasets associated with this project.