Project: Competitive Effects of Tubificid Assemblages on Triactinomyxon Production of Tubifex tubifex

Primary Investigator: Billie Kerans
Project Summary: The overall goal of this project is to determine the mechanisms underlying spatial variability in salmonid whirling disease risk that relate to tubificid assemblages, in order to develop potential management strategies that can be used to ameliorate the disease. A preliminary conclusion from one year of work is that the prevalence of infection in T. tubifex is density dependent: the higher the abundance of T. tubifex, the lower the prevalence of infection. The investigators observed that as myxospore dose increases from 10 to 100 per worm, the prevalence of infection in T. tubifex increases. Prevalence of infection in T. tubifex and numbers of TAMs produced by individuals appears to be minimally affected by the presence of the aquatic oligochaete Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, which does not sustain the whirling disease infection. Finally, under laboratory conditions the presence of resistant T. tubifex may decrease the numbers of TAMs produced by susceptible T. tubifex early in the release process. However, as release proceeds, the treatments with both susceptible and resistant strains produce similar numbers of TAMs.
Funding Period: 2001-2002
Final Report: Kerans_01-02.pdf
Dataset(s) associated with this project:

There are no datasets associated with this project.