Disease resistance is related to inherent swimming performance in Atlantic salmon ...

• Main Authors: Castro, Vicente, Grisdale-Helland, Barbara, Jørgensen, Sven M, Helgerud, Jan, Claireaux, Guy, Farrell, Anthony P, Krasnov, Aleksei, Helland, Ståle J, Takle, Harald
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2015
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0220708; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0220708

Background. Like humans, fish can be classified according to their athletic performance. Sustained exercise training of fish can improve growth and physical capacity, and recent results have documented improved disease resistance in exercised Atlantic salmon. In this study we investigated the effects of inherent swimming performance and exercise training on disease resistance in Atlantic salmon. Atlantic salmon were first classified as either poor or good according to their swimming performance in a screening test and then exercise trained for 10 weeks using one of two constant-velocity or two interval-velocity training regimes for comparison against control trained fish (low speed continuously). Disease resistance was assessed by a viral disease challenge test (infectious pancreatic necrosis) and gene expression analyses of the host response in selected organs. Results An inherently good swimming performance was associated with improved disease resistance, as good swimmers showed significantly better ...