Whirling disease in trout

Abstract

WHIRLING disease, long recognized as a serious problem in the intensive rearing of salmonid fish in Europe, has now been found in Scotland. In October 1968, the myxosporidian protozoan parasite Myxosoma cerebralis, the aetiological agent of the disease, was identified in rainbow trout (Salmo gairdnerii) from two trout farms. In recent years the disease has appeared in North America, USSR and Japan, but the causative parasite has not previously been identified in Great Britain. © 1969 Nature Publishing Group.