The role of wildlife tourism in conservation of endangered species: Implications of safari tourism for conservation of the Arctic fox in Sweden

There are both positive and negative impacts on wildlife associated with wildlife tourism. In Sweden, the endangered Arctic fox is subject to a growing tourist interest. In the Helags mountain region there are guided Arctic fox safari tours that provide visitors with information about the Arctic fox. A survey of five separate groups of visitors in the region revealed that knowledge about the status of Arctic foxes and awareness of the behavioral guidelines for Arctic fox encounters improved after participation in a safari tour and with increasing Arctic fox interaction. We propose a schematic model summarizing the diverse ways in which wildlife tourism affects wildlife and their relative importance for conservation. The Arctic fox population in Sweden is small and sensitive to disturbance, but the positive impacts of Arctic fox tourism seem to compensate for the negative and contribute to their conservation under the current level of tourism pressure.     

Territorial and agonistic interactions between farmed and wild cod (Gadus morhua)

Studies of contest competition between wild and farmed fish have mostly focused on fish with strongly territorial behaviour. Little is known about species with more plastic social behaviour, such as Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.), a species that can either aggressively defend territories or shoal. There is also concern that cod that escape from farms will compete with wild populations. We examined dyadic contest competition between wild and farmed juvenile cod using an intruder–resident experimental set‐up in the laboratory. No prior residency advantage was observed, but the differences between farmed and wild cod were clear. Farmed cod were more submissive than wild cod and fled earlier during contests, which suggests that wild fish often out‐compete farmed intruders. Both fish types initiated aggression earlier against fish of the same background. A multivariate analysis of 11 different behavioural traits indicated that a group of 59% of farmed fish were behaviourally very similar to the 55% most submissive wild fish. These results suggest that wild juvenile cod may be quite robust towards competition for food and shelter from juvenile farmed cod, but further research is needed to verify this pattern.     

Anaesthesia of Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) Effect of pre‐anaesthetic sedation,and importance of body weight and water temperature

The efficacy of the anaesthetic agents benzocaine, metacaine (MS‐222), metomidate, 2‐phenoxyethanol, quinaldine and isoeugenol was studied in Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus). Fish with an average body weight of 33 g were anaesthetized at 8 °C and fish with an average body weight of 1243 g were anaesthetized at 8 and 15 °C. Agents were tested individually and as combination anaesthesia comprising pre‐anaesthetic sedation, followed by anaesthesia. Induction and recovery times varied in relation to the body weight and water temperature. Large fish had longer induction times and shorter recovery times, and displayed reduced responsiveness to handling compared with small fish. A higher temperature resulted in shorter induction times, longer recovery times and increased responsiveness to handling. Lower dosages were used for all agents in combination anaesthesia. In small fish, this had no effect on the induction times but resulted in shorter recovery times and reduced responsiveness to handling. In large fish, combination anaesthesia resulted in shorter induction times whereas no uniform trend in recovery times and no differences in responsiveness to handling were observed. Neither individual agents nor combinations blocked all reflex reactions to external stimulation in all fish of any treatment group. MS‐222 and benzocaine, used separately or in combination anaesthesia, were the most effective agents in reducing reflex reactions.     

Local adaptation studies and conservation: Parasite–host interactions between the endangered freshwater mussel Unio crassus and its host fish

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Effects of dietary yeast inclusion and acute stress on post-prandial whole blood profiles of dorsal aorta-cannulated rainbow trout

Yeast is a potential alternative to fish meal in diets for farmed fish, yet replacing more than 50 % of fish meal results in reduced fish growth. In a 4-week experiment, 15 rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were cannulated and fed three diets each week: 30 % fish meal as a control (FM); 60 % replacement of fish meal protein, on a digestible basis, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC); and 60 % replacement with Wickerhamomyces anomalus and S. cerevisiae mix (WA). Blood was collected at 0, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h after feeding. In the final week, fish were exposed to a 1-min netting stressor to evaluate possible diet–stress interactions. Significant increases in pH, TCO₂, HCO₃ and base excess were found after fish were fed the SC and WA diets compared with FM, which elevated blood alkaline tides. Yeast ingredients had lower buffering capacity and ash content than fish meal, which explained the increase in alkaline tides. In addition, fish fed the WA diet had significantly reduced erythrocyte area and fish fed SC and WA diets had increased mean corpuscular haemoglobin levels, indicating haemolytic anaemia. Higher levels of nucleic acid in yeast-based diets and potentially higher production of reactive oxygen species were suspected of damaging haemoglobin, which require replacement by smaller immature erythrocytes. Acute stress caused the expected rise in cortisol and glucose levels, but no interaction with diet was found. These results show that replacing 60 % of fish meal protein with yeasts can induce haemolytic anaemia in rainbow trout, which may limit yeast inclusion in diets for farmed fish.     

Growth performance,nutrient digestibility and intestinal morphology of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed graded levels of the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Wickerhamomyces anomalus

In a 10‐week study, we evaluated the effects of replacing 20%, 40% or 60% of fishmeal (present in control diet at 300 g/kg) on a digestible protein basis with yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae or a yeast mixture of Wickerhamomyces anomalus and S. cerevisiae on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, nutrient retention and intestinal health of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Triplicate tanks with 35 rainbow trout (144.7 ± 25.1 g mean ± SEM) were fed rations of 1.5% of total biomass per tank. Replacement of 60% of fishmeal with yeast mixture resulted in lower specific growth rate of 1.0% versus 1.2%/day for other diets. Apparent digestibility coefficients for crude protein and most amino acids were highest in fish fed fishmeal‐based diet, with similar values for fish fed the diet with 20% replacement with yeast mixture. Diet with 20% replacement with yeast mixture resulted in highest phosphorus digestibility. Replacement of 60% of fishmeal with S. cerevisiae resulted in oedematous mucosal fold tips in the proximal intestine. The results of this study suggest that these yeasts can replace up to 40% of fishmeal under current inclusion levels in diets for rainbow trout without compromising growth performance, nutrient digestibility or intestinal health.     

Surplus spermine does not protect salmon cells against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced stress,but excess spermine is eliminated through spermidine/spermine N1‐acetyltransferase (SSAT)

The present trials tested the efficiency of surplus spermine to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress following LPS‐induced stress using an in vitro model of head kidney and liver cells isolated from Atlantic salmon. Spermine did not protect cells from LPS‐induced inflammatory response at either 0.3, 0.6 or 0.9 mM. However, as the gene expression of spermidine/spermine N1‐acetyltransferase (SSAT) increased with increasing spermine concentration, we addressed possible oxidative effects of the increased SSAT using its activator DENSPM or inhibitor of polyamine oxidation of the acetylated polyamines using MDL72527 at a spermine concentration of 0.6 mM. There was no significant effect of DENSPM, but MDL72527 decreased gene expression of GPX‐3 (p = .04), while gene expression of catalase and MnSOD was unaffected by treatment (p = .30 and p = .48, respectively). In conclusion, spermine did not protect cells from LPS‐provoked inflammation. The higher the spermine concentration, the more SSAT producing acetylated spermine occurred. Inhibiting the acetylated polyamine oxidases by MDL72527 improved oxidation status as expected due to a lower endogenous production of H₂O₂ by polyamine and acetylated polyamine oxidases. Probably care should be taken using polyamines or arginine as functional ingredients to avoid any increased oxidation within cells.     

Genetic differentiation between and within ecotypes of pike (Esox lucius) in the Baltic Sea

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Prediction of Starch,Soluble Sugars and Amino Acids in Potatoes (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanum tuberosum</Emphasis> L.) Using Hyperspectral Imaging,Dielectric and LF-NMR Methodologies

Handling and processing of potatoes is performed in increasingly large and more automated facilities, and the industry calls for more automated machinery for quality assessment and sorting by concentration of starch, soluble sugars, protein, amino acids etc. of the potato tubers. The present study was designed to evaluate five different scanning methods for their potential use in potato assessment and sorting. Two methods were based on hyperspectral imaging, two were based on dielectric/bio-impedance and one was based on low-field nuclear magnetic resonance. A set of 60 potatoes of 10 different cultivars were simultaneously sampled for analyses of content and scanned by the five different scanning methods. The resulting multivariate dataset was used to estimate the prediction ability of the individual scanning methods on starch-related parameters, selected simple sugars, selected amino acids, conductivity of pressed cell sap and cell sizes. Results showed that most types of spectral analyses had relatively high potential for predicting the starch-related parameters and medium potential for predicting the concentration of the reducing sugars fructose and glucose. Most methods showed medium potential for prediction of several amino acids, including asparagine, which showed particularly promising predictions in the hyperspectral analyses of intact potatoes. The presented screening study enabled us to perform robust choices for the further development and optimization of the methods and instruments for industrial implementation.