The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is strongly advising horse owners throughout the state to protect their animals by vaccinating them for the West Nile Virus by April or May of this year. If you vaccinated your horse last year with the recommended number of shots, then a single “booster” shot will be sufficient this year. If you have not vaccinated your animal yet, you are advised to administer two in the spring and one at the beginning of August. Horse owners can obtain the vaccine from most local veterinarian. Horse owners can protect their animals by applying approved repellants to the animals and by controlling mosquitoes and mosquito breeding areas. Horse owners may also protect the animals by putting them in the barn or other enclosed structures. For more information about the West Nile Virus, please visit the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food’s web page at: www.ag.utah.gov or the Utah Department of Health’s web page: http://www.health.utah.gov. Contact Larry Lewis at the UDAF for more information. (801) 538-7104 or C 514-2152.

6:55:11 AM    

With Utah's spring fishing season in full-swing, many anglers are wondering where the best places are to wet a line.

The Division of Wildlife Resources provides a number of ways to find out:

Toll-free telephone line

Fishing information supplied by DWRs personnel, and anglers who supply information about their latest fishing adventures, is recorded onto the DWR's information hotline by Friday afternoon each week, says Suzette Fowlks, information specialist for the DWR.

The DWR's information hotline number is (877) 592-5169. "The information line is toll-free, even though it's an 877 number," Fowlks says. "All of the 800 and 888 numbers have been used, so we were assigned an 877 toll-free number."

Anglers in the Salt Lake Valley and most of Davis County may also access the hotline by calling 596-8660.

Internet web pages

The weekly fishing report is also available at wildlife.utah.gov/fishing, which is one of the DWR's Internet Web pages. Updates to the report are typically posted by Thursday afternoon each week.

At the DWR's Fishing Tips page, anglers may send fishing reports for other anglers to read and read the reports others have sent. They may also ask Tom Pettengill fishing questions. Pettengill is the sport fisheries coordinator for the DWR. "To receive an answer to your question, please type in your e-mail address at the bottom of your question so I'll know how to reach you, " he says.

The Fishing Tips page is also available at wildlife.utah.gov/fishing.

"New reports are added to this page almost as fast as we get them, so be sure to check this page for the latest fishing information," Pettengill says.

Obtaining fishing information before Thursday

Those wanting information about fishing conditions in specific DWR regions earlier than Thursday may call the Division of Wildlife Resources regional office in the region where the waters are located. Regional offices typically have fishing updates, for waters in their region, by Wednesday each week.

DWR regional offices are located in Ogden, Springville, Vernal, Price and Cedar City, and are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.

Telephone numbers are as follows:

• Northern Region (Ogden office): (801) 476-2740
• Central Region (Springville office): (801) 491-5678
• Northeastern Region (Vernal office): (435) 781-WILD (9453)
• Southeastern Region (Price office): (435) 636-0260
• Southern Region (Cedar City office): (435) 865-6100

6:49:46 AM