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

• Published in: BMC Physiology
• Main Authors: Castro, Vicente, Grisdale-Helland, Barbara, Jorgensen, Sven, Helgerud, Jan, Claireaux, Guy, Farrell, Anthony P, Krasnov, Aleksei, Helland, Ståle J, Takle, Harald
• Other Authors: Nofima, Institute of Animal Sciences (UMB), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), AVS, AVS Chile SA, Aquaculture Protein Centre, Faculty of Medecine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim (NTNU), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)-Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin (LEMAR) (LEMAR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Faculty of Land and Food systems & department of Zoology, University of British Columbia (UBC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: socio; envir; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6793-13-1; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-00818110/file/BMC-Phys.Castro.pdf; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-00818110

International audience 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 survival compared to poor swimmers in the viral challenge test. Differences in mortalities between poor and good swimmers were correlated with cardiac mRNA expression of virus responsive genes reflecting the infection status. Although not significant, fish trained at constant-velocity showed a trend towards higher survival than fish trained at either short or long intervals. Finally, only constant training at high intensity had a significant positive effect on fish growth compared to control trained fish. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first evidence suggesting that inherent swimming performance is associated with disease resistance in fish.