The find will reduce the number of fish available this year to Utah anglers by 21 percent, said Tim Miles of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Stocking cuts will occur statewide.

"It is not the end of the world because we still have fish in the system and a good water year," he said. "But anglers will not have as many catchables as they have had in the past."

In addition, Chris Wilson of the DWR will meet today with U.S. Forest Service officials in northeastern Utah to discuss the discovery of the disease in brook trout in a creek that feeds Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Positive samples found last year below Browne Lake still are being studied because it is difficult for biologists to get into the high elevation creek to take additional samples. But because Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River below the dam are two of Utah's most important fisheries, a possible new infection would be a major concern.

Caused by a parasite, whirling disease deforms trouts' bone structure so they can only swim in circles. It first was found in Utah in 1991 in a Wayne County fish farm then owned by the family of Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, Utah's former governor.

Since then, more than a dozen private facilities have had positive tests for the disease. According to DWR, the parasite has been detected in the Logan, Little Bear, Ogden, Weber, Provo, Beaver River, Otter Creek, Sevier, Fremont River, Mammoth Creek and Geyser Creek drainage basins.

The Springville hatchery is the third state facility to test positive for whirling disease. The other two, Midway and Mammoth Creek, have been cleaned up and returned to production with safeguards against the disease.

Miles said new technology used in those hatcheries will be employed at Springville, which should be back in use in a year.

The Springville hatchery is Utah's oldest facility, having produced rainbow, brook, brown and cutthroat trout; kokanee salmon; grayling; yellow perch; channel catfish; black bass; largemouth and smallmouth bass; crappie; bluegill; walleye; wipers; and endangered June suckers since opening in 1909.

Recent drought conditions reduced Springville's production from a high of 220,000 pounds of fish in 1982 to a planned 133,000 pounds of fish this year.

Wilson said that, by law, the 80,000 pounds of fish currently in the hatchery cannot be stocked within the state. They could be killed and buried, salvaged as food for charity because whirling disease does not affect humans, or traded to another state that does not prohibit stocking diseased fish as Utah does.

wharton@sltrib.com

Whirling disease

l What it is: Caused by a parasite, the disease deforms trout so they may only swim in circles. It does not affect human health.

l Where it is: Whirling disease first was discovered in Utah in 1991 in a private fish hatchery in Wayne County. Most recently, it was detected in the Springville State Fish Hatchery, which now will close for a year.

l How anglers are affected: The Springville hatchery produces 18 percent of the total pounds of trout in Utah's system, 21 percent of catchable-size trout and 6.5 percent of the total number of fish in the hatchery system. The closure means the number of pounds of hatchery-raised fish in Utah waters will drop from 800,000 to 667,000.Whirling

disease found

at hatchery