KANSAS CITY, Kansas, June 2, 2008 (AP) - State wildlife officials in Kansas and Missouri say they are trying to figure out better ways to stop non-native species from arriving in the two states.

The effort was prompted by a recent discovery of a small minnow called the brook stickleback that had been shipped to other shops from a bait shop in Kansas City, Kansas.

The stickleback had been mixed in with the more common fathead minnows the shop shipped to about 20 retail bait ships in Missouri and Kansas.

The brook stickleback is not a legal bait fish in either state because they are native to northern states. While they pose no immediate threat to local fish populations, brook sticklebacks that escape or are dumped from bait buckets could establish local populations.

And Jason Goeckler, a biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, says the fish could carry a virus that is killing sport fish in the Great Lakes region.