Effects of ozone on welfare indicators of juvenile turbot (Psetta maxima, L.)in marine recirculation aquaculture sytems

• Main Author: Reiser, Stefan
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Turbot
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/3948/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/3948/1/Dipl.%202009%20Reiser,%20S.pdf

Turbot is a new and promising species for marine aquaculture in Europe. lts biological features make it a lucrative species for the intensive cultivation in land based, marine recirculation aquaculture systems. Recirculation aquaculture systems permit constant conditions over the whole production cycle and provide the basis for a sustainable production of aquatic organisms. Within recirculation systems, water processing is one of the main issues providing these optimal conditions for fish production and also safeguarding good hygiene via disinfectants. Within the last few years, the application of ozone has been established in aquaculture an exhibited optimal performance in daily aquaculture routine. Besides its disinfectant characteristics, ozone holds many additional benefits for aquaculture. However, its disinfectant characteristics make ozone potentially hazardous to fish and therefore might impair welfare of the cultivated organisms. Considering an increased attention of the public towards animal rights in intensive production systems, it is of great importance to avoid culture practices that might create paar welfare of the cultivated animals. Otherwise, the consumers' acceptance towards the product might be adversely affected. To evaluate the effect of ozone an the welfare of turbot, juvenile turbot were exposed to three different oxidant (TRO) concentrations (0.06, 0.10 and 0.15 mg/1 Cl2) for a three week trial. Fish were sampled after 1, 7 and 21 days of exposure to cover short term, intermediate and long term effects of ozone. After exposure, behavioural alterations, hematocrit, hemoglobin and cortisol levels in turbot blood as well as expression of two stress related genes (hsp70 and hsp90) and a detoxifying enzyme (glutathione S-transferase) in the liver and gills were analyzed to cover the different levels of animal stress response and finally determine the welfare status of juvenile turbot subjected to ozone. The present study revealed that ozone had an effect an the behaviour at feeding and a ...