Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages
Over the last 2 decades, cleaner fishes have been employed to remove external sea lice parasites from Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in sea cages. Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and the Faroe Islands combined now use ~60 million cleaner fish per year. While small-scale experiments demonstrate the efficacy...
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ftimr:oai:imr.brage.unit.no:11250/2684557 2023-05-15T15:31:59+02:00 Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages Gentry, Katherine Bui, Samantha Oppedal, Frode Dempster, Timothy David 2020 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2684557 https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 eng eng Norges forskningsråd: 290917 Fiskeri- og havbruksnæringens forskningsfinansiering: 901243 Aquaculture Environment Interactions. 2020, 12 67-80. urn:issn:1869-215X https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2684557 https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 cristin:1725832 67-80 12 Aquaculture Environment Interactions Peer reviewed Journal article 2020 ftimr https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 2021-09-23T20:14:32Z Over the last 2 decades, cleaner fishes have been employed to remove external sea lice parasites from Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in sea cages. Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and the Faroe Islands combined now use ~60 million cleaner fish per year. While small-scale experiments demonstrate the efficacy of cleaner fishes, industrial-scale sea cages have multiple structures and conditions that create different environments, which may impact cleaner fish efficacy and welfare. Here, in commercial sea cages, we investigated if 4 different anti-lice strategies impacted the delousing efficacy, physical condition, and behaviour of cleaner fish (corkwing wrasse Symphodus melops). The strategies tested were: (1) cleaner fishes only; (2) cleaner fishes and functional feed; (3) cleaner fishes, functional feed, and deep lights and feeding; and (4) cleaner fishes, functional feed, deep lights and feeding, and lice skirts. Corkwing wrasse were sampled from 3 cage-level replicates of each anti-lice strategy 3 times over 2 mo. Lice levels on salmon were recorded every 3 to 4 wk. Only 11% of corkwing wrasse had salmon lice in their gut, with individual wrasse having up to 72 lice in their stomach. Wrasse in cages encircled by lice skirts consumed one-ninth as many lice as those in other anti-lice treatments and had less overall impact on the number of lice per salmon. Fin, skin, mouth and eye condition, K factor, and observed cleaning behaviours of corkwing wrasse were similar across all anti-lice strategies. Our results demonstrate that different in-cage anti-lice strategies altered the magnitude of lice consumption in corkwing wrasse at this site and for this production period. Moreover, while a small proportion of corkwing wrasse appear to target lice as prey, most individual corkwing wrasse were ineffective biological control agents in a full-scale farm setting. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Atlantic salmon Faroe Islands Salmo salar Institute for Marine Research: Brage IMR Faroe Islands Norway Aquaculture Environment Interactions 12 67 80 |
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Institute for Marine Research: Brage IMR |
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English |
description |
Over the last 2 decades, cleaner fishes have been employed to remove external sea lice parasites from Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in sea cages. Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and the Faroe Islands combined now use ~60 million cleaner fish per year. While small-scale experiments demonstrate the efficacy of cleaner fishes, industrial-scale sea cages have multiple structures and conditions that create different environments, which may impact cleaner fish efficacy and welfare. Here, in commercial sea cages, we investigated if 4 different anti-lice strategies impacted the delousing efficacy, physical condition, and behaviour of cleaner fish (corkwing wrasse Symphodus melops). The strategies tested were: (1) cleaner fishes only; (2) cleaner fishes and functional feed; (3) cleaner fishes, functional feed, and deep lights and feeding; and (4) cleaner fishes, functional feed, deep lights and feeding, and lice skirts. Corkwing wrasse were sampled from 3 cage-level replicates of each anti-lice strategy 3 times over 2 mo. Lice levels on salmon were recorded every 3 to 4 wk. Only 11% of corkwing wrasse had salmon lice in their gut, with individual wrasse having up to 72 lice in their stomach. Wrasse in cages encircled by lice skirts consumed one-ninth as many lice as those in other anti-lice treatments and had less overall impact on the number of lice per salmon. Fin, skin, mouth and eye condition, K factor, and observed cleaning behaviours of corkwing wrasse were similar across all anti-lice strategies. Our results demonstrate that different in-cage anti-lice strategies altered the magnitude of lice consumption in corkwing wrasse at this site and for this production period. Moreover, while a small proportion of corkwing wrasse appear to target lice as prey, most individual corkwing wrasse were ineffective biological control agents in a full-scale farm setting. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gentry, Katherine Bui, Samantha Oppedal, Frode Dempster, Timothy David |
spellingShingle |
Gentry, Katherine Bui, Samantha Oppedal, Frode Dempster, Timothy David Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
author_facet |
Gentry, Katherine Bui, Samantha Oppedal, Frode Dempster, Timothy David |
author_sort |
Gentry, Katherine |
title |
Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
title_short |
Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
title_full |
Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
title_fullStr |
Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial Atlantic salmon sea-cages |
title_sort |
sea lice prevention strategies affect cleaner fish delousing efficacy in commercial atlantic salmon sea-cages |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2684557 https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 |
geographic |
Faroe Islands Norway |
geographic_facet |
Faroe Islands Norway |
genre |
Atlantic salmon Faroe Islands Salmo salar |
genre_facet |
Atlantic salmon Faroe Islands Salmo salar |
op_source |
67-80 12 Aquaculture Environment Interactions |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: 290917 Fiskeri- og havbruksnæringens forskningsfinansiering: 901243 Aquaculture Environment Interactions. 2020, 12 67-80. urn:issn:1869-215X https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2684557 https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 cristin:1725832 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/AEI00348 |
container_title |
Aquaculture Environment Interactions |
container_volume |
12 |
container_start_page |
67 |
op_container_end_page |
80 |
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1766362470898728960 |