BTW I got a number of different replies from the two boards about what this disease might be. Top three diagnoses were

1) Henneguya sp (cause of tapioca disease in the meat)

2) Myxobolus squamalis (salmon skin-pox as pictured above)

3) Furunculosis (another skin disease that looks more like boils than nodules)

The second one appears to be the correct diagnosis based on the picture I posted. I could not find any images of the actual organism itself, but Myxobolus cerebralis (the brain version of the bug) is what causes whirling disease.


Did a little more web-searching based on the clues KRM posted.

Henneguya spp is the bug responsible for tapioca disease. Easy to see how its spores could be mistaken for human sperm cells in those stool samples that he referenced in an earlier post.

Here's a pic of furunculosis caused by Aeromonas salmonicida




Pics did not quite come out full size, so here's the link:

web page

That bottom set of pics is something I had never seen (went to the link too), that is some disturbing looking stuff.

I've caught several coho over these last two seasons with Tapioca disease. Lucky me, huh?

Anybody notice that the muscle lesions appear to be concentrated towards the tail? I've been able to trim the first third of the infected fillets and not found any 'tapioca' spots. And I looked, I looked hard. I prefer not to eat smoked pus.

Both of these guys had puss pockets along the lateral line, and towards the tail.
The were both marked by pinnipeds Vs. Seems odd for them to pass on an eazy meal. Perhaps they sense something?

I am still curious as to why there seems to be an increase in the irregularities in fish over the past decade. It is in wild and hatchery fish so it is not something in the feed as smolt.

A long time back when they were talking about putting Atlantic Salmon in Pass lake, people were concerned about them escaping to the salt and spreading disease unique to Atlantic Salmon.

Well they have not escaped from Pass lake... but they have escaped in the thousands from net pens all over WA, OR, and CA. Any relation?

We saw a huge increase in the number of Coho's with this type of lesion in the KTN area this fall season.

I also had numerous (20 +) sockeye caught while trolling that were covered by the cysts. They were so unhealthy looking that we set them loose.
(after the first one)

The one I did keep was basically an entire "pus pocket" when I attempted to clean it.

Definately something is going on.

Joe

I volunteer at the Kalama hatchery occasionally and probably 80% of the steelhead we get back have seal marks (golden arches) on 'em. I imagine the seals miss an awful lot more than they catch, still too many imho.