BOZEMAN(AP) - A team of Utah researchers has received an $83,000 grant to study rainbow trout with a ''significant resistance'' to whirling disease found in a Madison County reservoir.
''They are not absolutely resistant, but they are significantly resistant,'' said Richard Vincent, who works with the Fish, Wildlife and Parks at Montana State University.
Willow Creek Reservoir is three miles east of Harrison.
Researchers haven't found a solution for whirling disease, which has infected more than 130 streams in Montana, but Vincent said the Willow Creek Reservoir trout warrant continued study.
The encouraging strain of fish came from Wyoming between 1977 and 1981. Before that, the fish came to Wyoming from California.
Some of the rainbow trout in the Willow Creek Reservoir have been sent to scientists in Utah, California and Colorado, Vincent said.
The Utah project, headed by Eric Wagner and Chris Wilson of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, received an $83,816 grant from the Montana Water Center, the National Partnership for the Management of Wild and Native Coldwater Fisheries, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Montana Water Center, housed at MSU, gave $644,000 in grants for whirling disease studies in 2005-06.
Whirling disease is caused by a parasite that attacks cartilage in fish, resulting in deformities and causes some fish to whirl.
Other research projects will study how the movement of anglers transfers whirling disease among drainages and the risk of whirling disease to Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
