A review of the approaches to detect Myxobolus cerebralis, the cause of salmonid whirling disease

The impacts of whirling disease on the aquaculture of trout over the past 80 years has resulted in the development of simple to more complex methods to detect the causative agent Myxobolus cerebralis. With the absence of effective treatments, efficient detection of this pathogen is critical. It is our goal to give a historical perspective to these developments while discussing the relative merits of the different techniques.