Evaluation of the Genetic Diversity of Flavobacterium Psychrophilum from Various Origins

The US Fish and Wildlife Service along with the Washington Department of
Fisheries and Wildlife work in cooperation on the Pacific salmon restoration
effort. For a number of reasons, population numbers of some Pacific salmon
species have declined dramatically over recent years and a large part of the
restoration effort encompasses hatchery propagation of progeny from returning
fish for subsequent planting into their natural waters. With hatchery rearing
operations fish are maintained in high densities and this situation lends
itself to disease problems. One such disease is bacterial cold water disease,
caused by the Gram negative bacterium Flavobacterium psychrophilum. Source of
the infection is the ubiquitous nature of the pathogen and because of the
verticle transmissability. Only recently has the biochemical and taxonomic
position of F. psychrophilum been elucidated more accurately.

Information was obtained from http://www.lsc.usgs.gov