Improved recapture rate of vaccinated sea‐ranched Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L.

• Published in: Journal of Fish Diseases
• Main Authors: Buchmann, K, Larsen, J L, Therkildsen, B
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2001
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2761.2001.00294.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-2761.2001.00294.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-2761.2001.00294.x

Vaccination of sea‐ranched Atlantic salmon was conducted in order to investigate if immuno‐prophylactic measures could improve their survival. Fish were either vaccinated by bath or injection. A total of 66 000 fish were reared in fresh water at a hatchery on the island of Bornholm and at the presmolt stage were separated in three groups each comprising of 22 000 fish. One group was vaccinated intraperitoneally with a polyvalent vaccine (containing killed Vibrio anguillarum serotype O1 and O2, Yersinia ruckeri and Aeromonas salmonicida ). A second group was bath vaccinated with the corresponding vaccine‐components and the third group was used as a non‐vaccinated control. One month after vaccination these groups were allocated to three separate net‐pens located 500 m from the coastline of the island. After 4 months in the net‐pens, 1000 fish from each cage were tagged with Carlin‐tags below the dorsal fin. The fish were then released for a migration period in the Baltic Sea. Following a sea period of 40 months (45 months post‐vaccination), the recapture rates of the groups were calculated from the returned tags from fishermen. Recapture of the injection vaccinated group was significantly higher (25%) compared with the bath vaccinated fish (14.7%) and the control group (16.8%).