Andy Starostka and Adam McDaniel visited eastern Ohio to assist the La Crosse Fish Health Center with collecting fish tissue samples to test for Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), a contagious and deadly fish disease that can kill both native and game fish species.  VHS had earlier been confirmed in two muskellunge that were collected at Clear Fork Reservoir.  This was the first confirmed case of the disease outside the Great Lakes watershed in wild fish populations.  This current effort was intended to determine the range of VHS within the watershed.  Fish were captured by Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) field crews from several sites throughout the Clear Fork drainage and transported on trucks from Castalia State Fish Hatchery to Woodbury Wildlife Area where crews had assembled to collect samples.  Personnel from the Service's Lamar Fish Health Center, Ohio DNR and Department

of Agriculture were involved in this collaborative effort to monitor for this debilitating fish disease. 

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_ news/stories/2008/06/30/fishkiller.ART_ ART_06-30-08_A1_LEAJR1M.html?sid=101

Andy Starostka and Adam McDaniel