“…Efforts to control and reduce infection in hatcheries rely on antibiotic injections of broodstock and culling eggs from females with elevated levels of bacterial proteins in kidney tissue. Monitoring juvenile salmon during the freshwater phase has provided evidence that R. salmoninarum infection is endemic in Pacific Northwest watersheds (Sanders et al 1992, Pascho et al 1993, VanderKooi & Maule 1999, Arkoosh et al 2004. Less is known about the infection status in seawater (Meyers et al 1999, Bruno 2004, Rhodes et al 2006, especially during the early marine phase, a transition period between freshwater and ocean residence that is considered to be the most critical period in determining survival to adulthood (Pearcy 1992).…”