PW07 Effects of Multiple Stressors on Marine Resources
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Wednesday
(PW097) Assessing the effects of a parasite and heavy metals in juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) using an experimental, multiple-stressor approach.
Blanar, C1, MacLatchy, D1, Kieffer, J1, 1 University of New Brunswick at Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
ABSTRACT- Discocotyle sagittata (Monogenea), a gill parasite of salmonid fishes, may be ideally suited for use as a model for the experimental study of the effects of parasitic infections on toxic responses in their hosts. Its life cycle requires no intermediate hosts, and it is easily cultured in the laboratory; furthermore, it is a large ectoparasite (5 to 9 mm), allowing nonlethal assessment of parameters in both the fish host (susceptibility, growth, physiology) and the parasite (infection intensity, growth, maturity, fecundity, feeding). This allows long-term study and the use of powerful repeated measures designs. Preliminary work indicates that experimentally-infected juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) typically become infected with 2-15 Discocotyle, an infection level consistent with what one would observe in the wild, and that this level of infection can impact the capacity of the host to perform and maintain exhaustive exercise. We present early results on the physiological effects of this parasite on juvenile Atlantic salmon, and the use of Discocotyle in a multiple-stressor framework, assessing interactive effects of parasite and heavy metal contamination on Atlantic salmon survival, growth and performance.
Key words: Parasites, Heavy metals, Atlantic salmon, Multiple stressors