Twist and turn: Whirling disease found in trout in world-class Bow River fishery
A world-class Alberta trout river has been infected by a disease that is usually fatal to the prized sport fish.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has advised that the entire Bow River watershed in southern Alberta has been contaminated by whirling disease. The advisory includes tributaries such as the Elbow River and continues downstream all the way to the Bow’s confluence with the South Saskatchewan River.
The provincial government is testing other rivers to see if the pathogen has turned up elsewhere, said Alberta Environment spokesman Peter Giamberardino.
“We continue to test those samples,” he said Friday. “We’ll be determining if it has spread outside of the Bow River. At this time, we have no information that it has.”