Fish farmers fight state's test protocol
UTAH - Private fish growers took their complaints to lawmakers on Wednesday, charging that state officials are closing down their hatcheries after conducting a single, sometimes unreliable, test for whirling disease. </b> <br><br> Leonard Blackham, head of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, defended his agency's insistence that a single test is evidence enough that private fish farms are contaminated with the parasite that attacks trout. <br><br> "These are DNA tests - we've sent people to their deaths on these types of tests," said Blackham, referring to the execution of killers linked to crimes through DNA testing. <br><br> Blackham also compared fish farmers getting unfavorable test results to cancer patients - both "cannot accept the tests results so they want another test," he said during a meeting of the Natural Resource Interim Committee. <br><br> <i>Source: The Salt Lake Tribune</i>
