On May 8 an online symposium was hosted by AEP on the topic of whirling disease. The session was held as a virtual meeting (zoom) and I saw up to about 180 concurrent partipants. Several presentations by given by various experts and researchers and I think the presentations were format were quite effective. The event was recorded and is available on YouTube.
The situation is dire and many of our favorite trout streams will be severely impacted. There is some hope on the horizon as research continues and our provincial biologists share information with other jurisdictions who have dealt with this in the past.
Here is a summary of the sessions with links to the starting point of their presentation.
| Welcome & brief summary of whirling disease in Alberta (link) | Clayton James Dr. Steve Jimbo |
| Whirling disease in the East Portal of the Gunnison River and Myxobolus cerebralis resistance in the Gunnison River Rainbow Trout (link) | Dr. Eric Fetherman |
| Using genome-wide association (GWA) analysis and quantitative-trait loci (QTL) mapping to assess the genetic basis of susceptibility to whirling disease in trout and understand the susceptibility profile of Alberta trout populations (link) | Dr. Patrick Hanington |
| Susceptibility to whirling disease in three Alberta salmonids (link) | Dr. Edyta Jasinska Dr. Greg Goss |
| Contributions of dynamic thermoregulation to mitigate disease: climate change challenges and novel strategies for harnessing fish natural capacity to combat parasite infection (link) | Dr. Dan Barreda Jeremy Wakaruk, BSc |
| Emerging myxozoan problem in fathead minnows (link) | Molly Tilley, BSc |
| Tracking spatio-temporal dynamics of whirling disease in Alberta using paleo-eDNA (link) | Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke |
| Molecular assessment of the invertebrate host, Tubifex sp., in relation to the causative agent of whirling disease, Myxobolus cerebralis, in a non-endemic area (link) | Danielle Barry, BSc |
| Tubificid host susceptibility, community competence and whirling disease risk (link) | Dr. Julie Alexander |
| Accurate prediction of the spread of whirling disease using machine-learning (link) | Dr. Pouria Ramazi Dr. Mark Lewis Dr. Russ Greiner |
| Using citizen science to engage anglers on whirling disease (link) | Sean Simmons, MSc Dr. Mark Poesch |