GRAND FORKS (AP) - The International Joint Commission says researchers found no signs of bacterial disease problems in fish during in the first year of a three-year study of Devils Lake, the Sheyenne River, the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. The report stresses that it is too early to draw any conclusions.

The first-year results establish a baseline-monitoring system for the Devils Lake and Red River basins, officials said.

"Basically the fish that have been collected in this survey, in 2006 - there's no indication of any clinical disease resulting from bacterial or viral agents in any fish that were collected in this study," said Rick Nelson, a member of the ICJ Red River Board.

"We also looked at parasites. We detected 10 parasites in Devils Lake and 28 parasites in the Red River Delta or the delta in Lake Winnipeg," Nelson said.

"There shouldn't be any conclusions drawn from year 1 of the sampling effort and the data that were collected, because we need to take a look at all three years of data," Nelson said.

The study seeks to analyze the potential for transfer of species from Devils Lake to the Sheyenne River, Red River or Lake Winnipeg.