Injuries and deformities in fish: their potential impacts upon aquacultural production and welfare

Fish can be the recipients of numerous injuries that are potentially deleterious to aquacultural production performance and welfare. This review will employ a systematic approach that classifies injuries in relation to specific anatomical areas of the fish and will evaluate the effects of injury upon production and welfare. The selected areas include the (1) mouth, (2) eye, (3) epidermis and (4) fins. These areas cover a large number of external anatomical features that can be injured during aquacultural procedures and husbandry practices. In particular, these injuries can be diagnosed on live fish, in a farm environment. For each anatomical feature, this review addresses (a) its structure and function and (b) defines key injuries that can affect the fish from a production and a welfare perspective. Particular attention is then given to (c) defining known and potential aquacultural risk factors before (d) identifying and outlining potential short- and long-term farming practices and mitigation strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of these injuries. The review then concludes with an analysis of potential synergies between risk factors the type of injury, in addition to identifying potential synergies in mitigation strategies. The paper covers both aquaculture and capture-based aquaculture.     

Differential impact of chronic ozone exposure on expanding and fully expanded poplar leaves

Populus tremula L. × Populus alba L. (Populus ×c anescens (Aiton) Smith) - clone INRA 717-1-B4 saplings (50 cm apex to base and carrying 19 leaves on average) - were followed for 28 days. Half of the trees were grown in charcoal-filtered air while the other half were exposed to 120 ppb ozone for 11 h a day during the light period. The expanding leaf number 4 was tagged at the beginning of the experiment and finished expansion between 7 and 14 days. These leaves were harvested weekly for biochemical and proteome analyses using quantitative bidimensional electrophoresis (DiGE). Independent of the ozone treatment, all the analyses allowed a distinction between expanding and adult leaves. The results indicate that during the expansion phase (Days 0-7) the enzymatic machinery of the leaves is set up, and remains dynamically stable in the adult leaves (Days 14-28). Although ozone had no apparent effect on expanding leaves, the metabolic stability in fully expanded leaves observed in ozone-free plants was disturbed after 2 weeks of exposure and a stress-induced response became apparent.     

Population Structure Among Progeny-tested Bulls of the Red Dairy Breeds in Finland,Norway and Sweden

Abstract

The Icelandic cattle breed is believed to have been brought to Iceland from Norway around 1100 years ago. Since then it is thought to have been almost completely isolated and to have gone through large fluctuations in population size. Here molecular markers were used to assess the breed's genetic diversity and the current within-population genetic structure using a randomly selected unbiased sample from the population as verified by calculations of the coefficient of relationship (R). Measures of genetic diversity suggest that there is considerable diversity within the breed despite long-term isolation and the effective population size is high considering the isolation and the breeding system used in recent years. No evidence of recent bottlenecks was found and analysis of population structure suggests that the population is uniform in structure.     

In vitro degradation characteristics of Timothy and Red Clover at different harvest times

The nutritional value of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and timothy (Phleum pratense L.) were studied over two consecutive growing seasons (1995 and 1996) with an in vitro gas production technique and chemical analysis. The decline in degradability was more pronounced with increasing maturity in timothy than in red clover during spring growth, but similar during summer growth. Red clover contained more components soluble in neutral detergent solution (NDS) at all harvest occasions. The fractional degradation rate for the NDS fraction was lower in red clover compared to timothy. Red clover had slightly higher fractional degradation rate for the whole forage, but the total kinetic release of energy was similar for the two species at the same harvest time. The results indicate that timothy and red clover have different intrinsic characteristics limiting degradation. Effects of the treatments with NDS on the allocation of pectins could partially explain the differences in degradation characteristics.     

Effects of Concentrate Level on Carcass Composition,Tenderness and Growth Rate of Angus × NRF and Limousin × NRF Bulls

In total, 56 bulls of Angus 2 NRF or Limousin 2 NRF were fed two levels (either 2.5 or 5.0 kg animal -1 day -1 ) of concentrate from 12 weeks of age to slaughter in a 2 2 2 factorial design with cross-breed and concentrate level as fixed factors. The concentrate was a mixture with barley, oats, wheat, soyabean and molasses as main components. In addition, the animals had ad libitum access to grass silage. As expected, the bulls fed the high concentrate diet had higher growth rate than bulls fed moderate level of concentrate. Angus 2 NRF bulls fed the high level of concentrate showed the highest growth rate of the four subgroups and were on average slaughtered at the age of 15 months. Limousin 2 NRF bulls fed the moderate level of concentrate were the subgroup with the lowest growth rate and needed 20 months to reach the target slaughter weight, which on average was 280 and 340 kg for Angus 2 NRF and Limousin 2 NRF, respectively. Although the animals at the high concentrate level had a greater intake of energy day -1 , there was no significant difference in feed conversion calculated as FUm kg -1 gain between the subgroups. The Limousin cross-breeds had significantly higher relative proportions of muscle in the carcass, but less bone and fat than the Angus cross-breeds. Consequently, the Limousin 2 NRF bulls achieved better muscularity grading in the EUROP system than the Angus 2 NRF bulls. Concentrate level yielded different fatness scores in the EUROP system, while breed did not. The correlation between carcass weight and psoas major or longissimus dorsi muscles was stronger for the former muscle. There was a tendency for Angus 2 NRF bulls fed the moderate concentrate level to have more tender longissimus muscle than the other subgroups, but this difference was not significant.     

Influence of lipid composition of live feed on growth,survival and pigmentation of turbot larvae

The effect of different lipid compositions of live feed on the survival, growth rate and pigmentation success of turbot larvae, Scophthalmus maximus (L.), was investigated. Rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis, together with the algae Tetraselmis sp., were administered until day 12, and Artemia was fed until day 27. The experimentally treated live feeds were enriched with four formulated emulsions, resulting in a gradient in the relative contents of 3 HUFA (highly unsaturated fatty acids) and in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid, 22:6 3)/EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid, 20:5 3) ratios in both the rotifers and Artemia.There were no differences in larval growth rate, and only small differences in survival rate throughout the feeding experiment, probably because of satisfactory levels of 3 HUFA in the live feed to sustain growth and survival. A correlation was obtained between the percentage of completely pigmented 27 d old turbot and the DHA/EPA ratio in the total lipids of 12 d old larvae, which again was correlated with the corresponding ratio in the live feed used. The results suggest that normal pigmentation in turbot requires dietary DHA in the early larval feeding period, and that this requirement cannot be replaced by EPA.