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Stress and Body Condition in a Population of Largemouth Bass: Implications for Red‐Sore Disease
Author(s) -
Esch Gerald W.,
Hazen Terry C.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1980)109<532:sabcia>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - hematocrit , biology , zoology , bass (fish) , population , hemoglobin , white blood cell , aeromonas hydrophila , lymphocyte , veterinary medicine , endocrinology , fishery , immunology , biochemistry , medicine , environmental health , fish <actinopterygii>
The body conditions, K = 10 5 (weight, g) ÷ (standard length) 3 , and various hematological characters were examined for largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) taken from Par Pond, a reservoir heated by effluent from a nuclear production reactor at the Savannah River Plant near Aiken, South Carolina. Largemouth bass with K less than 2.0 had significantly lower (P < 0.05) hematocrits, hemoglobin concentrations, total red blood cell counts, total white blood cell counts, and lymphocyte fractions, and significantly higher granulocyte fractions and cortisol concentrations, than those with K greater than 2.0; monocyte, thrombocyte, and reticulocyte fractions were not different between the two K‐factor groupings. When data were pooled, all blood variables except the reticulocyte fraction were significantly correlated with K. Hematocrit, the lymphocyte fraction, and cortisol concentration account for 20.5% of the variation in K. These data support a previous hypothesis that elevated water temperature promotes stress. Stress within the Par Pond largemouth bass population may play an impotant role in the epizootiology of red‐sore disease caused by the gram‐negative bacterium, Aeromonas hydrophila.