Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

C. shasta has been implicated as a major source of juvenile mortality for Klamath River juvenile salmonids. Better understanding of the ecology of the parasite is essential to alter resource management and reduce the parasite impacts. Salmon populations in the Klamath Basin have been decreasing, and face a litany of survival pressures. In order to recover salmon populations, we need to better understand disease processes to improve management and increase juvenile salmonid survival. This long-term and ongoing work has been done in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon State University, and has frequently relied on funding from USFWS and USBOR. This work has had substantial impacts on water management decision making in the Klamath Basin. Current flow planning is based on outcomes of our scientific findings, and our statistical models are used to inform regulatory compliance on an annual basis.