Movements by adult cutthroat trout in a lotic system: implications for watershed-scale management

Abstract  Movements by adult cutthroat trout, Oncorhynchus clarkii (Richardson), were assessed from autumn to summer in the Salt River watershed, Wyoming-Idaho, USA by radio telemetry. Adult cutthroat trout were captured during September and October 2005 in the main stem of the Salt River, surgically implanted with radio transmitters, and tracked through to August 2006. Adult cutthroat trout were relatively sedentary and resided primarily in pools from October to March, but their movement rates increased during April. Higher movement rates were observed among tagged fish during May and early June. Among 43 fish residing in the Salt River during April 2006, 44% remained in the river, 37% moved into mountain tributaries and 19% moved into spring streams during the spawning season. Fish did not use segments of mountain tributaries or the upstream Salt River where fish passage was blocked by anthropogenic barriers or the channel was dewatered during summer. Almost all the fish that moved into spring streams used spring streams where pools and gravel–cobble riffles had been constructed by landowners. The results suggest that adult Snake River cutthroat move widely during May and early June to use spawning habitat in mountain tributaries and improved spring streams. Maintaining the ability of adult fish to move into mountain streams with spawning habitat, preserving spawning habitat in accessible mountain tributaries and removing barriers to upstream movements, and re-establishing summer stream flows in mountain tributaries affected by dams appear to be habitat management alternatives to preserve the Snake River cutthroat trout fishery in the Salt River.     

Effect of dietary supplementation of inulin and W. cibaria on haemato‐immunological parameters of hybrid surubim (Pseudoplatystoma sp)

The dietary supplementation of prebiotics, probiotics and symbiotic in hybrid surubins (a Pseudoplatystoma corruscans and P. fasciatum cross) was evaluated for the effects on their autochthonous intestinal microbiota and on haematological and immunological parameters. A total of 160 fish were divided into four treatment groups with four replicates each. The treatment groups were fed with the following diets for 15 days: control diet without supplementation; 0.5% inulin (prebiotic) supplementation; Weissella cibaria (CPQBA 001‐10 DRM 02) (7.87 ± 0.2 log CFU g^?1) supplementation; or 0.5% inulin and W. cibaria supplementation (symbiotic group). The midgut intestines of the fish with the symbiotic diet supplementation had higher concentrations of lactic acid bacteria (7.07 ± 1.11 log CFU g^?1) and low levels of Vibrio spp (1.90 ± 0.60 log CFU g^?1) and Pseudomonas spp (2.23 ± 1.48 log CFU g^?1). In addition, increased erythrocytes and reduced circulating neutrophils were observed in this group. No differences in blood glucose, serum protein or lysozyme levels were detected between treatment groups. However, a higher concentration of total immunoglobulin was observed in fish fed with the probiotic and symbiotic diets. The addition of 0.5% inulin (prebiotic) thus W. cibaria (probiotic) to the diet of Pseudoplatystoma hybrid surubins reduce the number of pathogenic bacteria and stimulate the beneficial intestinal microbiota and may possibly alter their immune defence system.     

Infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus from salmonids cultured in Korea

Abstract. Four isolates of infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) were obtained from rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), and masu salmon, Oncorhynchus masou (Walbaum), fry during epizootics at hatcheries in Korea. The four isolates of IHNV were compared with three from salmonids in the USA (SRCV, OSV and RB-76) by analysis of virion proteins in sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and neutralization tests, with two monoclonal antibodies raised against SRCV (MAb SRCV/A4) and RB-76 (MAb RB/B5). Based on the antigenicity and the size of the structural proteins, one Korean isolate from masu salmon (SCS) is similar to RB-76 and is an electropherotype 1. The other three isolates from rainbow trout (PRT, YRT and MRT) were identical to each other in the mobilities of their virion proteins in SDS-PAGE, and although their nucleocapsid (N) proteins comigrated with that of the RB-76 isolate, they differed from RB-76 in the smaller matrix 2 (M2) protein they contained. In addition, the three Korean isolates (PRT, YRT and MRT) could be divided into two groups by reactivity with MAb RB/B5. While the YRT isolate was neutralized by this MAb, the PRT and MRT isolates were not, suggesting that there are at least two neutralizing antigenic variants of IHNV in Korea.     

Characterizing environmental and spatial variables associated with the incidental catch of olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific purse‐seine fishery

In the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), a region of high fishing activity, olive ridley (Lepidochelis olivacea) and other sea turtles are accidentally caught in fishing nets with tuna and other animals. To date, the interaction between fishing activity, ocean conditions and sea turtle incidental catch in the ETP has been described and quantified, but the factors leading to the interaction of olive ridleys and fishing activity are not well understood. This information is essential for the development of future management strategies that avoid bycatch and incidental captures of sea turtles. We used Generalized additive models (GAM) to analyze the relationship between olive ridley incidental catch per unit effort (iCPUE) in the ETP purse‐seine fisheries and environmental conditions, geographic extent and fishing set type (associated with dolphins, floating objects or in free‐swimming tuna schools). Our results suggest that water temperature, set type and geographic location (latitude, longitude and distance to nesting beaches) are the most important predictor variables to describe the probability of a capture event, with the highest iCPUE observed in sets made over floating objects. With the environmental predictors used, sea surface temperatures (SST) of 26–30°C and chlorophyll‐a (chl‐a) concentrations <0.36 mg m^?3 were associated with the highest probability of an incidental catch. Temporally, the highest probability of an incidental catch was observed in the second half of the year (June to December). Four regions were observed as high incidental catch hotspots: North and south of the equator between 0–10°N; 0–10°S and from 120 to 140°W; and along the Colombian coast and surrounding regions.     

Phylogenetic analysis of bacterial communities in the shrimp and sea cucumber aquaculture environment in northern China by culturing and PCR–DGGE

In this study, we investigated the bacterial communities in the shrimp and sea cucumber culture environment, including shrimp ponds (SP), sea cucumber ponds (SCP), mixed-culture ponds (MCP) and the effluent channel (EC) in Qingdao, China. Bacteria cultivation showed that the counts of heterotrophic, nitrate-reducing and sulfate-reducing bacteria in the sediment of SP were higher than that in the sediment of SCP and MCP, varying between 8.7 × 10⁴ and 1.86 × 10⁶, 2.1 × 10⁴ and 1.1 × 10⁵, and 9.3 × 10¹ and 1.1 × 10⁴ CFU g^?1, respectively. In contrast, the counts of ammonium-oxidizing and nitrifying bacteria in the sediment of SP was lower than that in the sediment of SCP and MCP. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rDNA gene and dendrogram analyses showed that bacterial diversity in the mixed-culture environment was higher than that in the monocultures. The similarity of bacterial community between EC and SCP or MCP was higher than that between EC and SP. These results indicated that sea cucumber culture played a significant role in influencing the environmental bacterial communities that were composed mainly of Flavobacteriaceae (64.3%), Bacteriodetes (21%) and delta proteobacteria (14.7%), including the genera of Croceimarina, Lutibacter, Psychroserpens and so on. The results explained the benefit of sea cucumber culture in shrimp ponds at the level of microbial ecology.     

The disease status of Australian salmonids: bacteria and bacterial diseases

Abstract. Eleven freshwater salmonid hatcheries in southern Australia were surveyed for bacterial pathogens and diseases between 1981 and 1985, Twenty-five populations of fish were examined in the study, representing a total of 2755 fish, from which kidney, liver, spleen, and in some cases peritoneum, blood and faeces were cultured. Bacteria of pathogenic significance isolated included Aeromonas hvdrophila, Streptococcus sp., Lactobacillus piscicola, Yersinia ruckeri, Mycobacterium fortuitum, M. chelonei and a filamentous acid-fast organism of uncertain taxonomic position. Lacto-bacillus piscicola and Streptococcus sp. were associated with clinical and subclinical peritonitis. Mycobacterium chelonei was isolated from visceral granulomas in an externally normal fish. Aeromonas salmonicida, Renibacterium salmoninarum and Edwardsiella tarda were not isolated, indicating that the diseases furunculosis, bacterial kidney disease and edwardsiellosis are exotic to Australian salmonids. Similarly, while Y. ruckeri was isolated, enteric redmouth disease had not been recorded and is considered an exotic disease.     

Cloning and expression analysis of innate immune genes from red sea bream to assess different susceptibility to megalocytivirus infection

As suggested by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), fishes belonging to the genus Oplegnathus are more sensitive to megalocytivirus infection than other fish species including red sea bream (Pagrus major). To assess the roles of the innate immune response to these different susceptibilities, we cloned the genes encoding inflammatory factors including IL‐8 and COX‐2, and the antiviral factor like Mx from red sea bream for the first time and performed phylogenetic and structural analysis. Analysed expression levels of IL‐1β, IL‐8 and COX‐2 and the antiviral factor like Mx genes performed with in vivo challenge experiment showed no difference in inflammatory gene expression or respiratory burst activity between red sea bream and rock bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus). However, the Mx gene expression levels in red sea bream were markedly higher than those in rock bream, suggesting the importance of type I interferon (IFN)‐induced proteins, particularly Mx, during megalocytivirus infection, rather than inflammation‐related genes. The in vitro challenge experiments using embryonic primary cultures derived from both fish species showed no difference in cytopathic effects (CPE), viral replication profiles, and inflammatory and Mx gene expression pattern between the two fish species.     

Escaped farmed salmon, Salmo salar L., in the Glenarm River, Northern Ireland: genetic status of the wild population 7 years on

A previous study described genetic changes in a wild Atlantic salmon , Salmo salar L., population resulting from the spawning of escaped farmed salmon in the Glenarm River, Northern Ireland, in 1990. This study reports an extension of the original investigation with a further follow-up sample that was taken from the river in 1997 to assess the genetic status of the wild population two generations after the original hybridization between the wild population and the farmed strain. Overall genetic variation across eight polymorphic allozyme loci indicated that the wild population remains significantly different from the pre-escape population and from the immediate post-escape population, the presence of an allele not having been previously detected in this population ( GPI-1,2*140 ), suggesting that further incursion(s) of farmed salmon may have taken place.     

“Indirect selection” for genetic change: A quantitative analysis illustrated with Macrobrachium rosenbergii

“Indirect selection” is exerted on a trait indirectly, by means other than artificial selection for the trait itself. Expressions are derived for calculating the intensity of indirect selection in aquaculture environments. The calculations are illustrated with growth-rate data on M. rosenbergii from farm ponds in Thailand, and with computer-generated data which simulate measurements made during a multiple mark-recapture experiment. Indirect selection for growth is probably negligible in Thai prawn farms and hatcheries at present, but small changes in management practice could exert strong indirect selection on growth rate. One very effective change appears to be collecting broodstock as early in the production cycle as possible. Control of indirect selection may be useful for the genetic improvement of aquaculture stock, especially in developing countries and other situations where an intensive artificial selection program is not economically or biologically desirable. Like all selection programs, the probability of success is critically dependent on the genetics of the traits being selected.     

Effects of dietary selenium on growth performance and oxidative stress in juvenile grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idellus

An 8‐week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary selenium (Se) on feed intake, weight gain and antioxidant activity in juvenile grass carp (11.2 ± 0.03 g). Six Se levels (0.13, 0.41, 0.56, 1.12, 2.18 and 4.31 mg/kg) of semi‐purified diets were assayed in triplicate. The maximum weight gain, specific growth rate and feed intake were obtained in fish fed with 1.12 mg Se/kg diet. Hepatic glutathione peroxidase activity was markedly increased when dietary Se ≤1.12 mg/kg diet and reached a plateau when dietary Se ≥1.12 mg/kg diet. Hepatic superoxide dismutase and serum catalase activities in juvenile grass carp fed with 0.56, 1.12 and 2.18 mg Se/kg diets were all significantly higher than those in the other groups. The malondialdehyde content in liver and serum was firstly decreased and then increased with increasing dietary Se content, and the lowest content was observed in fish fed with 1.12 mg Se/kg diet. With the increase in Se level, the activities of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were reduced. In addition, serum alkaline phosphatase activity and albumin content were highest in fish fed with 1.12 mg Se/kg diet. This study indicated that both the Se deficiency and excess of Se caused negative effect on the oxidative stress in juvenile grass carp and suggested that the health‐giving concentration of dietary inorganic Se was 1.12 mg/kg diet. Moreover, based on the broken‐line regression analysis of weight gain, the optimal concentration of dietary inorganic Se was 0.83 mg/kg for juvenile grass carp.