| Possilbe new treatment for flukes?
I know these are not KOI but they are fish and in general less tolerant of meds than koi tend to be. So what do you all think?
OSLO (Reuters) - Aluminum could be an unusual savior for Atlantic salmon in prized Scandinavian and Russian fishing rivers because it kills a voracious parasite, researchers said on Friday.
The findings may help fly fishing enthusiasts, fish farming companies and nations from the United States to Scotland who boast rivers free of the tiny gyrodactylus salaris fresh water parasite and want them to stay that way.
An unprecedented test in western Norway this summer showed that tiny concentrations of ground aluminum, dripped into the Batnsfjord river, apparently killed the parasites stuck on the salmon skin without hurting the fish or other riverlife.
"We've not found parasites on the last 90 fish we've tested," Sigurd Hytteroed of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute told Reuters. "A year ago, all of the fish had it."
"As far as we know, aluminum has never been tested like this elsewhere in the world," he said of the study by several Norwegian research groups. High concentrations of aluminum can damage fish gills.
Salmon have been almost wiped out in some of the about 40 rivers in Norway containing the parasite, which attaches itself to the fish with tiny hooks. It then eats through the skin, often bringing ulcers and infections that kill the fish.
The parasite has also affected rivers in other Scandinavian nations and Russia, Hytteroed said.
The aluminum was dripped into the river from three main points along the river in a dose of 200 micrograms per liter of water -- a microgram is a millionth of a gram (0.03527 ounce).
Previous more drastic cures often used rotenon, a pesticide that can also kill the fish.
Researchers stumbled across aluminum's parasite-killing side-effects after finding that rivers without gyrodactylus salaris had high natural levels of metals, washed from the ground. Laboratory research showed aluminum was the best.
Other experts welcomed the findings, if confirmed.
"We don't have the parasite on this side of the Atlantic but we're scared to death of it," said Fred Whoriskey, vice-president of research and environment at the Atlantic Salmon Federation in New Brunswick, Canada.
"Scotland and Ireland are also free of it," he said. The parasite dies in salt water where salmon spend most of their lives, but there were risks that ships, for instance, might transport the parasite in ballast water over the Atlantic. | 
09-12-2004
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