Submitted the pics to Fish and Wildlife.. Here is answer in just 45 minutes..Originally Posted by adam7456
Stephen,
See the comment below from our Geneticist. As you can see it is probably just a freak of nature. Keep in mind we rear 2,000,000 trout per year. I have been involved with rearing salmonids for over 15 years and have never seen one like this. I would say 1 out of 30,000,000 is just a very rare occurrence. If we continue to see more of these, we would need to do some research to determine if there is a genetic problem, some environmental factor causing the problem, or something else.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.
James Gray
Project Leader
Wolf Creek NFH
My best guess is that this fish has some type of defect (obviously). Defects are abnormalities in skeleton, body form, and body functions. Abnormalities may result from genetic or environmental causes and in the case of this fish, it is unclear what caused this defect. There are many environmental factors such as disease and diet that could produce such abnormalities. On the other hand genetic abnormalities often occur when genes are missing, in excess, mutated or in the wrong location (translocation). A few genes can directly cause an abnormality, however, these are rare. Usually, these genes are recessive, meaning two must be present to cause an abnormality. For example syndactyly, which refers to the fusion of the two toes of the foot in the Aberdeen Angus breed of cattle is caused by a recessive gene. Thus while this fish probably has some type of defect, it is difficult to discern whether it is environmental or genetic and probably more difficult to figure out what exactly caused the defect in the first place
Sorry I can't be of more help
Greg
Gregory R. Moyer, PhD
Regional Geneticist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Warm Springs Fish Technology Center
5308 Spring Street
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