According to the Toledo Blade, the grant, announced yesterday by US Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), will fund a two-year study into viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS.
VHS has been responsible for several fish kills in the Great Lakes, including a kill of thousands of freshwater drum, or sheepshead, and yellow perch in central Lake Erie in the summer of 2006.
For the first time, VHS recently was confirmed in fish beyond the Lake Erie watershed in inland Ohio - among muskellunge at Clear Fork Reservoir near Mansfield, the Toledo Blade said.
No fish kill has been recorded there to date, but state biologists are on guard to prevent the spread of VHS to state hatcheries.
A series of federal restrictions remain in effect on movement of 37 fish species in the Great Lakes basin.
$209,126 Grant to Study Deadly Fish Virus
US - The University of Toledo has been awarded a $209,126 federal grant to study the fish disease that has threatened the health of many species of Great Lakes fish.