Prevention of Prespawning Mortality: Cause of Salmon Headburns and Cranial Lesions
This project was to undertaken to provide information about a condition known as ''headburn''. Information from the project will enable U.S. Corps of Engineers managers to make adjustments in operational procedures or facilities on the Columbia and Snake rivers to prevent loss of pre-spawning adult salmonids that migrate through the facilities. Headburn is a descriptive clinical term used by fishery biologists to describe scalping or exfoliation of skin and ulceration of underlying connective tissue and muscle, primarily of the jaw and cranial region of salmonids observed at fish passage facilities. Headburn lesions are primarily caused when fish collide with concrete or other structures at dams and fish passage facilities, and may be exacerbated in some fish that ''fallback'' or pass over spillways or through turbine assemblies after having passed the dam through a fish ladder. Prespawning mortality of headburned salmonids can be prevented or greatly reduced by therapeutic treatment of both hatchery and wild fish. Treatments would consist of topical application of an anti-fungal agent, injection of replacement plasma electrolytes into the peritoneal cavity, and injection of a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent at fish passage and trapping facilities or hatcheries.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 15020751
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-14748; 400403209; TRN: US200521%%248
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Survival Estimates for the Passage of Juvenile Chinook Salmon through Snake River Dams and Reservoirs, 1993 Annual Report.
State‐Space Model to Estimate Salmon Escapement Using Multiple Data Sources