Whirling Disease is deadly to wild trout
The SCDNR issued a warning Friday, April 15, 2022 alerting anglers that a parasitic disease has been detected in four trout streams in Pickens and Greenville (SC) counties. The disease is deadly to trout.
Whirling Disease was first detected in the United States in the late 1950s. But this is the first sign of the disease in South Carolina. It causes damage to trout cartilage and skeletal tissue, making infected trout swim in a whirling pattern.
The disease is not harmful to humans, but wild trout infected with it have a high mortality rate.
The Walhalla State Fish Hatchery in Oconee County, which supplies many of the trout stocked throughout South Carolina streams, has been tested for the disease. Tests there have come back negative, and SCDNR continues to collect samples from there and other bodies of water.
The agency reminded anglers not to stock or move trout from one body of water to another.
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