Table 14. Sentinel cage sampling results for 12 tributaries of the Big Blackfoot River, 

 2002 and 2003. 



Nevada Spring Creek 3 Mar-02 21 417 Brook trout 



Nevada Spring Creek 3 Mar-02 43 417 Rainbow trout 



Nevada Spring Creek 3 Mar-02 19 417 Brown trout 



Nevada Spring Creek 3 Apr-03 50 Rainbow trout 



North Fork Blackfoot above 



Kleinschmidt Creek Jul-02 32 46 0.78 55 7 



Jun-03 50 64 1.32 _^ 



North Fork Blackfoot near 



USFS boundary Jul-02 27 52.4 



^ Jun-03 50 . 



Kleinschmidt spring Creek 1 Mar-02 50 96 4.02 42 3 Brook trout 



Kleinschmidt Spring Creek 1 Mar-02 48 100 4.52 42.3 Rainbow trout 



Kleinschmidt Spring Creek 1 Mar-02 43 2 02 42 3 Brown trout 



Kleinschmidt Spring Creek 0.1 Apr-03 50 98 4_7 Rainbow trout 



Rock Creek OJ _^ 



Warren Creek Jun-03 50 6 0.06 



Myxobolus cerebralis has a complex, two-host life cycle involving a salmonid and 

 the aquatic oligochaete worm, Tubifex tubifex. There are also two spore forms of the 

 parasite; a fragile triactinomyxon (TAM) that is released by the worm and infects young 

 trout and a hardy myxospore later released by infected fish and ingested by the worm 

 host, where the myxospore is then converted back to the TAM stage. The development 

 and severity of whirling disease in exposed salmonids is dependent on many factors 

 involving: 1) the fish host (species, strain, age, size) (Thompson et al. 1999; Vincent 

 2002; Ryce 2003); 2) the worm host (Granath et al. 2002); 3) the environment (water 

 quality parameters, water temperature, flow rates) (MacConnell and Vincent 2002; Smith 

 2002); and 4) the overlap of contact v^th both spore types (overlap of TAM with 

 susceptible Iry species and myxospore being encountered by the worm) (Kerans and Zale 



92 



