Current nucleic acid amplification methods to detect

Several Seattle-area streams in Puget Sound were the focus of habitat restoration projects in the 1990s. Post-project effectiveness monitoring surveys revealed anomalous behaviors among adult coho salmon returning to spawn in restored reaches. These included erratic surface swimming, gaping, fin splaying, and loss of orientation and equilibrium. Affected fish died within hours, and female carcasses generally showed high rates (>90%) of egg retention. Beginning in the fall of 2002, systematic spawner surveys were conducted to 1) assess the severity of the adult die-offs, 2) compare spawner mortality in urban vs. non-urban streams, and 3) identify water quality and spawner condition factors that might be associated with the recurrent fish kills. The forensic investigation focused on conventional water quality parameters (e.g., dissolved oxygen, temperature, ammonia), fish condition, pathogen exposure and disease status, and exposures to metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and current use pesticides. Daily surveys of a representative urban stream (Longfellow Creek) from 2002–2009 revealed premature spawner mortality rates that ranged from 60–100% of each fall run. The comparable rate in a non-urban stream was <1% (Fortson Creek, surveyed in 2002). Conventional water quality, pesticide exposure, disease, and spawner condition showed no relationship to the syndrome. Coho salmon did show evidence of exposure to metals and petroleum hydrocarbons, both of which commonly originate from motor vehicles in urban landscapes. The weight of evidence suggests that freshwater-transitional coho are particularly vulnerable to an as-yet unidentified toxic contaminant (or contaminant mixture) in urban runoff. Stormwater may therefore place important constraints on efforts to conserve and recover coho populations in urban and urbanizing watersheds throughout the western United States.

We used reported commercial catch data and historical information regarding unreported catches to estimate the abundance of winter steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss, in Puget Sound rivers in 1895, the year in which the peak commercial catch of steelhead occurred. We employed a Bayesian analysis to address the uncertainties associated with the estimation process and report abundance estimates for four large northern Puget Sound rivers and for the remaining aggregate of rivers and streams in Puget Sound. The central 90% of the posterior distribution of total abundance ranged from 485 000 to 930 000, with a mode of 622 000. Compared with the 25-year average abundance for all of Puget Sound of 22 000 for the 1980-2004 period, our results show that current abundance is likely only 1%-4% of what it was prior to the turn of the 20th century. Loss of freshwater habitat alone can account for this reduction in abundance only if there was an extraordinary decline in productivity. Our estimates of historical abundance should better inform the development of recovery goals for Puget Sound steelhead.

Background Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) is an emergent virus in salmon aquaculture belonging to the family Reoviridae . PRV is associated with a growing list of pathological conditions including heart and skeletal inflammation (HSMI) of farmed Atlantic salmon. Despite widespread PRV infection in commercially farmed Atlantic salmon, information on PRV prevalence and on the genetic sequence variation of PRV in Atlantic salmon on the north Pacific Coast is limited. Methods Feral Atlantic salmon caught in Washington State and British Columbia following a large containment failure at a farm in northern Puget Sound were sampled. Fish tissues were tested for PRV by RT-qPCR assay for segment L1 and conventional RT-PCR for PRV segment S1. The PCR products were sequenced and their relationship to PRV strains in GenBank was determined using phylogenetic analysis and nucleotide and amino acid homology comparisons. Results Following the escape of 253,000 Atlantic salmon from a salmon farm in Washington State, USA, 72/73 tissue samples from 27 Atlantic salmon captured shortly after the escape tested PRV-positive. We estimate PRV-prevalence in the source farm population at 95% or greater. The PRV found in the fish was identified as PRV sub-genotype Ia and very similar to PRV from farmed Atlantic salmon in Iceland. This correlates with the source of the fish in the farm. Eggs of infected fish were positive for PRV indicating the possibility of vertical transfer and spread with fish egg transports. Conclusions PRV prevalence was close to 100% in farmed Atlantic salmon that were caught in Washington State and British Columbia following a large containment failure at a farm in northern Puget Sound. The PRV strains present in the escaped Atlantic salmon were very similar to the PRV strain reported in farmed Atlantic salmon from the source hatchery in Iceland that was used to stock commercial aquaculture sites in Washington State. This study emphasizes the need to screen Atlantic salmon broodstock for PRV, particularly where used to supply eggs to the global Atlantic salmon farming industry thereby improving our understanding of PRV epidemiology. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12985-019-1148-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Summary McArdle disease (glycogen storage disease type V) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder with an incidence of roughly 1:100,000. Despite concern that labour could predispose these patients to muscle damage, there are no evidence‐based guidelines for the management of labour and delivery in this population. We describe the case of a nulliparous parturient with both McArdle disease and adenosine monophosphate deaminase 1 deficiency who developed rhabdomyolysis after vaginal delivery. In the absence of common triggers, we believe that prolonged pushing efforts contributed to the increase in postpartum creatinine kinase. There are no previous cases of postpartum rhabdomyolysis after caesarean or assisted vaginal delivery within 45 min. We recommend that practitioners be alert to the possibility of rhabdomyolysis occurring with greater than 2 h of pushing efforts in parturients with McArdle disease.