There is hope in the Whirling Disease issue
 

Folks,

Colorado seems to have developed a strain of rainbows resistant to Whirling Disease (WD).
https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/04/c...rling-disease/

Don

What is the hope?

To stock these genetically altered fish into Alberta waters, or something else?

Well,
When the rainbow trout who are not native are gone, perhaps these might replace them.
Of course, the Athabaska Rainbow, who are native, should be preserved at all costs.

Don

Or, don't introduce any more non-native fish to our flowing waters?
Let the native fishes refill the ecospace?

Will these Colorado fish do well here?
Shall we start the experimenting again?
Or should we grow our own WD resistant rainbows cutthroat and whitefish $ from local waters, save as much of the local genetics as possible?

Good article thanks for posting it. Unfortunately there are only two species of trout that Alberta will support and Rainbows are no tone of them. Cutthroat Trout which I love, and Bull trout that are an eating factory in Cutthroat streams (am I the only one that sees the irony?),

Would rather see more effort put into bull trout, grayling, and browns that are more resilient to WD than import over priced rainbows

As for bulls eating cutthroat when you consider the availability of bull trout fisheries and populations in North America we should be happy to have healthy bull trout populations eating some cutthroat as many areas no longer have them.

Plus bulls are far more fun to catch and are larger on average

And whereBulls are now viable, I agree. But along came a bunch of hydro dams and away went the Bulls. So…..

Don

Lots of factors involved in the loss of bull trout populations but everything in my post still stands

The rainbows in the Madison fell to 10% of their historic numbers when WD showed up. A small side creek, I’ve read, had a population of rainbows that were somewhat resistant to WD. These repopulated the river. Took 30 years to get to 90% of per-WD levels.
Where this experience is different than AlBerta:
1) the source water was cones from a Federally Protected land in Yellowstone Park.
2) there is very little cattle grazing along the river
3) there are no mines or mine exploration in the headwaters
4) there is no Recreational !and destruction (quads) allowed.
5) there is no villages of RV’s along the river with frying pans at ready

So, if you wait 50+ years w/o any effort taken, you MIGHT recover somewhat.

The Province doing nothing has got us Whirling Disease, Chronic Wasting, Asian Carp, invasives everywhere.

Just so you know, the Rainbows from Germany (Hofer) were exported to Germany, the ones that survived have some resistance to WD. These started in the USA and now are returning.

Of course, sitting, doing nothing has been the operating standard in Alberta for 50 years and it shows.

Don

Read my post again I didn’t say do nothing but instead do something different than your post suggested

As for Rainbows I know a little more than you probably realize about the species but continue your education. I was only a Chairman for the freshwater aquaculture industry in B.C. for a period and one of the top producers of rainbow trout

First tip there is strains present in Canada that are resistant to WD but they are in the private sector

I done.

Sitting and watching the decline.

Don

Well get at it then

Complaining here won’t help

Now that is the truth.

Don

What stops the province from releasing some whirling disease resistant rainbows into the Crow and Bow and let nature infuse the genetics naturally?

Seems simple and cheap. Stocking truck with fish get import permit. Drive and dump where requested. Biggest cost will be delivery but lakes in Calgary used to get trout deliveries from the US.

Nothing to prevent it. However, just think, here is the opportunity to remove rainbows. Disease will do it.
The cuts will rejoice!

Don

Are cutts that resistant?

I really appreciate you posting this Don as this does represent a possible strategy to mitigating whirling disease. I do know this has been a long process for Colorado and that the original strain they stocked which was half Hofer (German) and half Colorado River (very susceptible), didn't have much success and wasn't a very good angling fish.

However, they found a native strain (Harrison Lake) that was actually already somewhat resistant to whirling disease and combined it with the Hofer strain and they found much more success. Here is a link of their most recent publication on the matter: https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley....002/nafm.10878

I can also tell you that the now deconstructed Whirling Disease Program with AB submitted genetic tissue of many different wild Rainbow and Cutthroat populations in AB to the U of A who are currently examining if we have any naturalized populations with more resistance to the disease. So there may be an avenue there.

Anyways, thank you for sharing!

Typically cutthroats are slightly less susceptible than rainbows but they can still be devastated by the disease and Colorado lost a good many cutthroat populations as well.