Publications

Use of electronic transmitter and monitoring systems to track movements of aquatic animals has increased continuously since the inception of these systems in the mid-1950s. The purpose of the present report is to provide information about veterinary principles and their incorporation into surgical implantation procedures for fish. We also intend to provide insight into the unique...

Mass mortality events in wild fish due to infectious diseases are troubling, especially given the potential for long-term, population-level consequences. Evolutionary theory predicts that populations with sufficient genetic variation will adapt in response to pathogen pressure. Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were introduced into Lake Michigan in the late 1960s from a Washington...

Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) of salmonid fishes, caused by Renibacterium salmoninarum, has been recognized as a serious disease in salmonid fishes since the 1930s. This chapter discusses the occurrence and significance, etiology, and pathogenesis of BKD. It then describes the different vaccination procedures and the effects and side-effects of vaccination. Despite years of research...

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a target of surveillance by many state and federal agencies in the United States. Currently, the detection of VHSV relies on virus isolation, which is lethal to fish and indicates only the current infection status. A serological method is required to ascertain prior exposure. Here, we report two serologic tests for VHSV that are nonlethal...

Immunological protection, acquired from either natural infection or vaccination, varies among hosts, reflecting underlying biological variation and affecting population-level protection. Owing to the nature of resistance mechanisms, distributions of susceptibility and protection entangle with pathogen dose in a way that can be decoupled by adequately representing the dose dimension. Any...

This report describes studies of juvenile-salmon dam passage and apparent survival at Cougar Dam, Oregon, during two operating conditions in 2012. Cougar Dam is a 158-meter tall rock-fill dam used primarily for flood control, and passes water through a temperature control tower to either a powerhouse penstock or to a regulating outlet (RO). The temperature control tower has moveable weir...

Collection of juvenile salmonids at Cowlitz Falls Dam is a critical part of the effort to restore salmon in the upper Cowlitz River because the majority of fish that are not collected at the dam pass downstream and enter a large reservoir where they become landlocked and lost to the anadromous fish population. However, the juvenile fish collection system at Cowlitz Falls Dam has failed...

Parasites and pathogens influence the size and stability of wildlife populations, yet many population models ignore the population-level effects of pathogens. Standard survival analysis methods (e.g., accelerated failure time models) are used to assess how survival rates are influenced by disease. However, they assume that each individual is equally susceptible and will eventually...

A combination of field surveys, molecular typing, and laboratory experiments were used to improve our understanding of the distribution and transmission mechanisms of fish parasites in the genus Ichthyophonus. Ichthyophonus spp. infections were detected from the Bering Sea to the coast of Oregon in 10 of 13 host species surveyed. Sequences of rDNA extracted from these isolates indicate...

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are a network of 22 public-private partnerships, defined by ecoregion, that share and provide science to ensure the sustainability of land, water, wildlife and cultural resources in North America. LLCs were established by the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) in recognition that response to climate change must be coordinated on a landscape-level...

We have analyzed the available genome and transcriptome resources from the coelacanth in order to characterize genes involved in adaptive immunity. Two highly distinctive IgW-encoding loci have been identified that exhibit a unique genomic organization, including a multiplicity of tandemly repeated constant region exons. The overall organization of the IgW loci precludes typical heavy...

A hydrodynamic model with particle tracking was used to create individual-based simulations to describe larval fish dispersal through the restored Williamson River Delta and into Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. The model was verified by converting particle ages to larval lengths and comparing these lengths to lengths of larvae in net catches. Correlations of simulated lengths with field data...