Fish Health Program (FHP)
Home
The Fish Health Program conducts science focused on understanding the control, distribution and severity of infectious diseases affecting hatchery and wild fish. Our research projects are national and international in scope but have a major focus on fish health issues in the western landscapes of the Columbia River, Puget Sound and Klamath Basin.
Tribal Collaborations
The Fish Health Program has a strong commitment to respond to requests for research and technical support from Tribal fisheries agencies.
Learn moreFish Health Program Quick Links
Welcome from the Fish Health Laboratory Leader
News
Western Fisheries Science News, March 2018 | Issue 6.3
Science Collaboration Brings Dr. Maya Groner to WFRC
Western Fisheries Science News, November 2017 | Issue 5.11
USGS and Chinese Fish Health Specialists Meet in the People's Republic of China to Discuss Fish Health
Western Fisheries Science News, March 2016 | Issue 4.3
Understanding the Effects of Temperature on Diseases in Fish
Publications
Herring Disease Program - Annual Project Report 2012011-E, February 1, 2010-January 31, 2021
We will investigate fish health factors that may be contributing to the failed recovery of Pacific herring populations in Prince William Sound. Field samples will provide infection and disease prevalence data from Prince William Sound and Sitka Sound to inform the age structured assessment (ASA) model, serological data will indicate the prior...
Hershberger, Paul; Purcell, Maureen K. Temperature variation and host immunity regulate viral persistence in a salmonid host
Environmental variation has important effects on host–pathogen interactions, affecting large-scale ecological processes such as the severity and frequency of epidemics. However, less is known about how the environment interacts with host immunity to modulate virus fitness within hosts. Here, we studied the interaction between host immune responses...
Páez, David J.; Powers, Rachel L.; Jia, Peng; Ballesteros, Natalia; Kurath, Gael; Naish, Kerry A.; Purcell, Maureen K. Long-term shedding from fully convalesced individuals indicates that Pacific herring are a reservoir for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus
Processes that allow viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus to persist in the marine environment remain enigmatic, owing largely to the presence of covert and cryptic infections in marine fishes during typical sub-epizootic periods. As such, marine host reservoirs for VHS virus have not been fully demonstrated, nor have the mechanism(s) by which...
Hershberger, Paul; Mackenzie, Ashley; Gregg, Jacob L.; Wilmot, M. D.; Powers, Rachel L.; Purcell, Maureen K.