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In 1997, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department developed and began implementing a A Natural Fish Population Fish Health Survey@ to determine the presence or absence of several fish diseases in Vermont^s waters. The resulting information will help the department make fisheries management decisions and assist in protecting Vermont^s fish populations from these diseases. This survey is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service=s National Wild Fish Health Survey. Until recently, there has been little emphasis on studying fish health in free-ranging or natural populations of fish. Sampling has been conducted on fish only when some specific outbreak was being studied or when pathogens have been found. No systematic approach to identify fish diseases in the natural environment had ever been undertaken in Vermont until recently. Since 1997, when the program started, 26 locations throughout the state have been surveyed. In 1997, Atlantic salmon and brook trout tested at Greendale Brook in Weston were found to have a bacterium, Aeromonas salmonicida, which can cause a disease known as AFurunculosis.@ The results of 1998 testing revealed another bacterium, Renibacterium salmoninarum, in six different locations: the Batten Kill, Dog River, John=s River, Lewis Creek, Lulls Brook and the Walloomsac River. This bacterium causes a disease known as ABacterial Kidney Disease,@ or BKD, and was found in populations of brook, brown and rainbow trout. Both Furunculosis and BKD are common diseases of trout and salmon and do not affect humans who handle or eat infected fish. The impact of these diseases on natural fish populations in the affected areas is unknown at this time. Presently, the best management strategy for controlling the spread of these diseases is preventing them from getting into other water bodies. The department urges anglers to help prevent the spread of fish diseases by observing the following precautions: -- Clean all equipment, such as boats, trailers, waders, boots, and float tubes of mud and aquatic plants before leaving any river or lake; -- Do not transport any river or lake water in coolers, buckets, boats, or live wells from one river, lake or stream to another; -- Disinfect equipment at home with a solution of three-quarters of a cup of chlorine bleach per gallon of water to destroy any disease organisms (especially before fishing in another waterbody); -- Do not transport live fish between bodies of water: -- Do not import fish from another state unless a permit is obtained from the Fish and Wildlife Department. Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department biologists plan to continue surveying additional waters, conduct further studies and continue diagnostic evaluations

Uploaded: 8/24/1999