During the 1970’s UDN (Ulcerative Dermal Necrosis) killed tens of thousands of salmon returning to Scottish Rivers. Although much research took place at the time no causal agent was ever identified. Over the last few years there have been reports of fish with similar symptoms from around Scotland. A centre for investigating this disease has been set up at Stirling University. Trust staff were trained in carrying out the detailed autopsy work which the investigation requires. This week thanks to a vigilant ghillie we were able to autopsy a diseased fish from the Conon. For sampling, the fish needed to show the characteristic lesions around the head but not to be heavily infected with fungus, it also had to freshly killed to provide blood samples and tissue samples from all the major internal organs. There have been a number of reports of diseased fish from the Conon this year but as water temperatures increase the risk of an outbreak spreading should decrease.
