Environmental Health

For more than five decades the WFRC Fish Health Program has worked with partners to provide research findings to managers of aquatic resources. Those partners form a network of colleagues, co-investigators, and customers. Our partners include Department of the Interior bureaus, tribal and state fisheries agencies, other federal partners and the private sector.

Lead Scientists - Expertise

List of species studied by the Fish Health Program. These species include bacteria, fish, parasites, and viruses. The list contains both common and scientific names. Descriptions of species and studies can be found under the "Related Science" tab.

This fish species has become a powerful model organism for the study of vertebrate biology, developmental and genetic research, and more recently infectious disease studies.

In fish, as in humans, an intact epidermis is critical to defense against entry of pathogens into the skin. Macroscopic examination of scale loss is the principal method of evaluating physical damage to juvenile salmonids out-migrating through hydroelectric dams in the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and in fish subjected to capture and handling procedures in locations such as hatcheries, fish bypass...

There has been long history of disease outbreaks and economic losses in wild and farmed carp species due to SVCV. Formerly thought to be restricted to Europe and Asia, SVCV was detected for the first time in North America from diseased koi at a North Carolina fish farm in 2002, and there were extensive eradication efforts with 135,000 fish euthanized in addition to the ~15,000 that died from the...

Fish Diseases - Emerging Viruses

A collection of 77 photomicrographs compiled by the late William T. Yasutake, USGS Western Fisheries Research Center, Scientist Emeritus. Individual plates may be downloaded below.