Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2017
Anaesthesia and handling stress effects on pigmentation and monoamines in Arctic charr
Backstrom, Tobias; Heynen, Martina; Brannas, Eva; Nilsson, Jan; Winberg, Svante; Magnhagen, CarinAbstract
Stress responsiveness differs between individuals and is often categorized into different stress coping styles. Using these stress coping styles for selection in fish farming could be beneficial, since stress is one main factor affecting welfare. In Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) carotenoid pigmentation is associated with stress responsiveness and stress coping styles. Thus this could be an important tool to use for selection of stress resilient charr. However, anaesthetics seem to affect carotenoid pigmentation, and it would be better if the method for selection could be implemented during normal maintenance, which usually includes anaesthetics. Therefore, this study investigated how the use of anaesthetics affected carotenoid pigmentation, i.e. number of spots, over time compared to no-anaesthetic treatment. Additionally, the stress indicators monoamines and glucocorticoids were investigated. The results indicate that the anaesthetic MS-222 affects number of spots on the right side. This anaesthetic also increased dopaminergic activity in the telencephalon. Both brain dopaminergic and serotonergic activity was associated with spottiness. Further, behaviour during anaesthetization was associated with spots on the left side, but not the right side. Repetition of the same treatment seemed to affect spot numbers on the right side. In conclusion, this study shows that inducing stress in charr affects the carotenoid spots. Thus, it is possible to use anaesthetics when evaluating spottiness although careful planning is needed.Keywords
Anaesthesia; Carotenoid pigmentation; Lateralization; Monoamine; Salmonid; StressPublished in
Environmental Biology of Fishes2017, volume: 100, number: 5, pages: 471-480
Publisher: SPRINGER
Authors' information
Backström, Tobias
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Heynen, Martina
Umeå University
Brännäs, Eva
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Winberg, Svante
Uppsala University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Nilsson, Jan
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG14 Life below water
UKÄ Subject classification
Fish and Aquacultural Science
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-016-0563-0
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/82697