Organophosphate Poisoning of Atlantic Salmon in Connection with Treatment against Salmon Lice

Three incidents with high mortality in Atlantic salmon after trichlorfon treatment against salmon lice are described. All 3 incidents occurred at water temperatures of 12°C or higher. The mean brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity of dead fish was less than 20% of normal activity, while survivo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
Main Authors: Horsberg, Tor Einar, Høy, Tonje, Nafstad, Inger
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 1989
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8142167/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2640774
https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03548014
Description
Summary:Three incidents with high mortality in Atlantic salmon after trichlorfon treatment against salmon lice are described. All 3 incidents occurred at water temperatures of 12°C or higher. The mean brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity of dead fish was less than 20% of normal activity, while survivors showed mean activities of 22–61% of normal levels. Dichlorvos residues in muscular and liver tissues ranged from nondetectable levels to 0.2 tissue. The strongest inhibition of brain AChE was found in association with the highest dichlorvos residues. Substantial AChE-inhibition was, however, also found in samples in which dichlorvos residues could not be detected. AChE-determination was found to be more reliable than residue analysis for the diagnosis of organophosphate poisoning in salmon.