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Physiological Stress Responses to Automated and Hand Vaccine Injection Procedures in Yearling Coho Salmon
Author(s) -
Sharpe Cameron S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
north american journal of aquaculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.432
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1548-8454
pISSN - 1522-2055
DOI - 10.1577/a06-004.1
Subject(s) - oncorhynchus , juvenile , fish <actinopterygii> , fight or flight response , biology , endocrinology , medicine , zoology , fishery , ecology , biochemistry , gene
Juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch were subjected to automated and hand injection procedures, and their cortisol response to the procedures and a secondary stress challenge (1‐h confinement) was compared. Both the hand and automated procedures elicited a variable but significant stress response and, after 1 h, decreased the ability of the fish to respond to the second challenge. After 24 h, hand‐injected fish had elevated cortisol levels (83 ± 6.3 ng/mL [mean ± SE]) relative to the automatically injected (40 ± 6.3 ng/mL) and control fish (25 ± 4.9 ng/mL). Also, the hand‐injected fish produced 28 ± 5.1 ng cortisol/mL in response to the stress challenge after 24 h, while the automatically injected and control fish produced two to three times as much. The elevated cortisol levels in the stress response and lack of a cortisol response to the stress challenge at 24 h indicate that the hand injection procedure had a protracted negative effect and suggest that the automatic injection system is a superior method for administering injections to juvenile salmonids.