Characterization of behavioural adaptation in farming teleosts : plasticity and domestication effects

• Main Author: Benhaïm, David
• Other Authors: Laboratoire Ressources Halieutiques (LRH), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Université de La Rochelle, Marie-Laure Bégout Anras
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: Adaptation; Plasticity; Domestication; Welfare; Feeding behaviour; Swimming activity; Personality; Plant-based diet; Maze; Physiological status; Growth; Aquaculture; Restocking; Plastificité; Bien-être; Comportement alimentaire; Activité de nage; Personnalité; Aliment végétal; Labyrinthe; Statut physiologique; Croissance; Repeuplement; [SDV.SA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences; Arctic; Arctic charr; Salvelinus alpinus
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00718400; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00718400/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00718400/file/2011Benhaim22533.pdf

The present work aims at a better understanding of the adaptation to farming conditions through a behavioural approach based on the comparison between wild vs. domesticated populations of three species: a marine species, sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), two freshwater species, arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and brown trout (Salmo trutta). The thesis is divided into two parts which objectives were : 1) to test the impact of biotic and abiotic factors selected based on their importance in aquaculture on sea bass and artic charr behavioural plasticity (behavioural modifications in response to environmental changes). 2) to characterize the domestication effect on behaviour through the comparison between wild vs. domesticated sea bass and brown trout at different ages and under different experimental conditions (challenges, maze).In the first part, experiments performed on arctic charr showed that an artificial shelter induced a lower mobility, better growth performances and a higher level of survival during the endogenous feeding period, that egg size and social environment play an important role on feeding behaviour and mobility during the weeks following the first exogenous feeding period. These results illustrated behavioural flexibility in response to abiotic and biotic factors. The findings could be used to improve culture performances and welfare of arctic charr. The experiments performed on sea bass showed that a plant-based diet do neither modify the learning abilities under self-feeding conditions nor the cognition under a test situation in a maze, but has an impact on swimming activity (the mean velocity decreased and the total distance travelled decreased) and on the short-term release of cortisol (plasmatic concentration lower than the control group). Another experiment showed that, under self-feeding conditions, size grading and the resulting social environment have no major influence on feed-demand, feeding rhythm, food wastage, social structure, growth performances and physiological status. At ...