Project: Effects of Spring Creek Rehabilitation on Infection Rates of Whirling Disease in Trout

Primary Investigator: Patrick Byorth
Project Summary: This project generated baseline data to examine the effects of rehabilitating two Montana spring creeks on whirling disease severity. Presence or absence of whirling disease and infection rates before habitat enhancement were determined. Rainbow, brown, and brook trout fry were placed in sentinel cages in each stream, reared, and sacrificed for analysis of infection rates by M cerebralis. The investigators monitored water temperatures and discharges of the creeks and documented basic habitat conditions. Trout abundance was determined by electrofishing. Three Dollar Spring Creek supported juvenile brown trout, while East Gallatin Spring Creek supported few fish of any size or species. Sentinel cage experiments indicated that M. cerebralis was present in both streams, although only one test fish in 700 was infected in East Gallatin Spring Creek. Infection rates were much higher in Three Dollar Spring Creek, although results were inconsistent. Severe infection rates documented in early experiments were not duplicated. Possibly restoration efforts affected conditions in a short time to decrease infection rates. Data collected in this study should be compared with similar measurements at least a year after restoration is completed to better illustrate the efficacy of spring creek restoration in waters infected with M. cerebralis.
Funding Period: 2002-2003
Final Report: byorth_02-03.pdf
Dataset(s) associated with this project:

There are no datasets associated with this project.