License to chill: Environmental enrichment for post-vaccination recovery and social training of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus)

IF 3.9 1区农林科学 Q1 FISHERIES

Aquaculture Pub Date : 2025-06-17 DOI:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2025.742861

Fredrik R. Staven , Manuel Gesto , Marta C. Soares , Nina S. Iversen , Andreas R. Staven , Torvald B. Egeland , Silje Stensby-Skjærvik , Lauris Boissonnot , Thor Magne Jonassen , Sigurd Olav Stefansson , Erik Höglund , Torstein Kristensen , Albert Kjartan D. Imsland

{"title":"License to chill: Environmental enrichment for post-vaccination recovery and social training of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus)","authors":"Fredrik R. Staven , Manuel Gesto , Marta C. Soares , Nina S. Iversen , Andreas R. Staven , Torvald B. Egeland , Silje Stensby-Skjærvik , Lauris Boissonnot , Thor Magne Jonassen , Sigurd Olav Stefansson , Erik Höglund , Torstein Kristensen , Albert Kjartan D. Imsland","doi":"10.1016/j.aquaculture.2025.742861","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Commercial production of lumpfish (<em>Cyclopterus lumpus</em>) offers a non-invasive, continuous, and environmentally friendly method for controlling sea lice (<em>Lepeophtheirus salmonis</em> and <em>Caligus elongatus</em>) in Atlantic salmon (<em>Salmo salar</em>) farming in the North-Atlantic region. However, rearing lumpfish in barren tanks contrasts with its natural benthic lifestyle, and may impair cognitive development, social interaction and ultimately cleaner behaviour. This study investigated the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) during post-vaccination recovery and after deployment in salmon net pens. A total of 18,000 lumpfish were distributed in six production tanks in a randomised triplicate setup with three tanks for control and three tanks with the combination of plastic shelters and salmon silicone models for seven weeks. The study continued at sea for two months using triplicate net pens, with blinded sampling protocols. Results showed that lumpfish in enriched tanks experienced a significant increase in growth, observed on day 28 post-vaccination and interacted actively with both enrichment types. Vaccination had a significant effect on brain neurotransmitters and blood cortisol but was not affected by EE. After deployment at sea, net pens with enriched lumpfish showed a trend towards reduced lice counts of adult female lice during first two weeks. However, lice consumption in both control and treatment were remarkably high, with pooled ingestion rates ranging from 30 to 36.7 % in weeks 4 and 8 post-deployment. Welfare assessments indicated good condition and no difference across treatments. These findings suggest that EE may serve as a practical strategy with the potential to mitigate post-vaccination stress, and enhance habituation to shelters and salmon cues, supporting its use as a reinforcing measure before deployment at sea.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8375,"journal":{"name":"Aquaculture","volume":"609 ","pages":"Article 742861"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aquaculture","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848625007471","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FISHERIES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Commercial production of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) offers a non-invasive, continuous, and environmentally friendly method for controlling sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus elongatus) in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) farming in the North-Atlantic region. However, rearing lumpfish in barren tanks contrasts with its natural benthic lifestyle, and may impair cognitive development, social interaction and ultimately cleaner behaviour. This study investigated the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) during post-vaccination recovery and after deployment in salmon net pens. A total of 18,000 lumpfish were distributed in six production tanks in a randomised triplicate setup with three tanks for control and three tanks with the combination of plastic shelters and salmon silicone models for seven weeks. The study continued at sea for two months using triplicate net pens, with blinded sampling protocols. Results showed that lumpfish in enriched tanks experienced a significant increase in growth, observed on day 28 post-vaccination and interacted actively with both enrichment types. Vaccination had a significant effect on brain neurotransmitters and blood cortisol but was not affected by EE. After deployment at sea, net pens with enriched lumpfish showed a trend towards reduced lice counts of adult female lice during first two weeks. However, lice consumption in both control and treatment were remarkably high, with pooled ingestion rates ranging from 30 to 36.7 % in weeks 4 and 8 post-deployment. Welfare assessments indicated good condition and no difference across treatments. These findings suggest that EE may serve as a practical strategy with the potential to mitigate post-vaccination stress, and enhance habituation to shelters and salmon cues, supporting its use as a reinforcing measure before deployment at sea.

查看原文本刊更多论文

冷冻许可证：为块鱼（Cyclopterus lumpus）接种疫苗后恢复和社会训练提供环境富集

大块鱼（Cyclopterus lumpus）的商业化生产为北大西洋地区大西洋鲑鱼（Salmo salar）养殖中控制海虱（Lepeophtheirus salmonis和Caligus elongatus）提供了一种非侵入性、连续性和环保的方法。然而，在贫瘠的水箱中饲养块状鱼与其天然的底栖生活方式形成鲜明对比，可能会损害认知发展、社会互动和最终的清洁行为。本研究探讨了环境富集（EE）对接种后恢复和部署后三文鱼网圈的影响。共有18,000条鱼被随机分配到6个生产水箱中，其中3个水箱作为对照，另外3个水箱结合了塑料庇护所和鲑鱼硅胶模型，持续7周。这项研究在海上持续了两个月，使用了三支网笔，采用了盲法采样协议。结果表明，在接种疫苗后第28天观察到，强化池中的肿块鱼的生长显著增加，并且与两种强化类型都有积极的相互作用。疫苗接种对脑神经递质和血液皮质醇有显著影响，但不受EE的影响。在海上部署后，在头两周内，有丰富的块鱼的网栏显示出成年雌性虱子数量减少的趋势。然而，对照组和治疗组的虱子摄取量都非常高，在部署后第4周和第8周，总摄取率为30%至36.7%。福利评估显示良好，各组间无差异。这些发现表明，情感表达可能作为一种实用的策略，有可能减轻疫苗接种后的压力，并增强对庇护所和鲑鱼线索的习惯，支持将其用作海上部署前的强化措施。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Aquaculture 农林科学-海洋与淡水生物学

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

17.80%

发文量

1246

审稿时长

56 days

期刊介绍： Aquaculture is an international journal for the exploration, improvement and management of all freshwater and marine food resources. It publishes novel and innovative research of world-wide interest on farming of aquatic organisms, which includes finfish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants for human consumption. Research on ornamentals is not a focus of the Journal. Aquaculture only publishes papers with a clear relevance to improving aquaculture practices or a potential application.