Journal of aquatic animal health最新文献

{"title":"Does environmental enrichment mitigate parasite infection by reducing stress in Masu Salmon Oncorhynchus masou?","authors":"Yuhei Ogura, Koh Hasegawa","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jahafs/vsaf014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Captive animals are exposed to various stressors originating from their artificial environment. Although stress can initially be an adaptive physiological response, persistent stress generally decreases immune function and makes animals more susceptible to pathogens. Environmental enrichment is a strategy that has been widely used to mitigate excessive stress and enhance animal welfare, but the effectiveness of individual enrichment components remains controversial. Hence, this study aimed to reveal the effect of shelter enrichment on stress levels and parasite infections in Masu Salmon Oncorhynchus masou. By using a single component, the study will help to provide a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the enrichment effect.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We explored whether shelter-enriched conditions relieved stress in Masu Salmon by evaluating plasma cortisol levels. Fish provided with shelters were expected to experience less aggression from conspecifics and less stress from human disturbance. Moreover, we conducted a parasite challenge test using Ichthyobodo sp. to determine whether the presence of shelters inhibited infection by mitigating stress levels.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Fish in enriched tanks had significantly lower basal cortisol levels than those in control tanks, suggesting that they were less affected by stressors. Although the difference was not significant, fish in enriched tanks also tended to experience less infection by the parasites than fish in control tanks.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Given these results, simple shelter enrichment appears to be an effective method for mitigating stress among captive fish and reducing stress intensity or frequency. In addition, shelter enrichment could be used to inhibit infectious diseases, although further work is needed to prove the effect. These findings confirm that shelter enrichment has measurable effects on the factors related to fish welfare, which should encourage the adoption of enrichment in fish farms.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145225268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"First molecular identification, biological diversity, and infection features of myxozoan parasites in Whiting Merlangius merlangus along the Turkish coast of the Black Sea.","authors":"Cem Tolga Gürkanlı, Sevilay Okkay, Yılmaz Çiftçi, Ahmet Özer","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jahafs/vsaf010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Myxosporean parasites are worldwide-distributed cnidarians that infect the organs and tissues of marine and freshwater organisms, primarily fish. Based on morphological peculiarities, two myxosporean species, Myxidium gadi and Ceratomyxa merlangi, from the gallbladder content of Whiting Merlangius merlangus inhabiting four sampling localities (Kocaeli, Sinop, Ordu, and Trabzon) along the Black Sea coast of Türkiye have been identified.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Concordant with the morphological data, the first phylogenetic analyses on the nucleotide sequences of 18S ribosomal DNA confirmed our Myxidium specimens to be M. gadi. This study also provided the first molecular data on C. merlangi, which appeared to be the closest species to C. cretensis and C. arcuata on the phylogenetic trees. The infection prevalence (%) and density values of each parasite species were calculated according to season and sampling localities of Whiting.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Ceratomyxa merlangi had a higher overall prevalence value (39.6%) than M. gadi (25.7%). The density values of both parasite species ranged between 2+ and 3+ in all fish samples. When the infection indices in sampling localities were compared for both parasite species, C. merlangi and M. gadi had the highest infection prevalence values in Sinop samples (66.3%); the highest density of infection (3+) was recorded in Sinop samples for C. merlangi and in Ordu samples for M. gadi.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study provides the first molecular data on M. gadi and C. merlangi, revealing their phylogenetic positions. In addition, seasonal and regional infection data for these species in the southern Black Sea region are reported for the first time, and it has been determined that both species can occur together.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145225363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of static-bath and flowing-water Flavobacterium columnare challenge methods with juvenile Chinook Salmon.","authors":"J Scott Foott","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf003","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Flavobacterium columnare is a common pathogen of Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Klamath River. Elevated water temperatures invoke congregation behavior within thermal refugia and are associated with columnaris disease. A flowing-water F. columnare challenge system was compared with the standard static-bath challenge as an initial step in simulating a riverine exposure.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Juvenile Chinook Salmon were exposed to 103 CFU/mL F. columnare for 20 h either in an aerated static bath or within a recirculation swim chamber set at one body length per second. Fish were held at a constant 20°C or exposed to short-term temperature fluctuations to a maximum of 24°C prior to the challenge. Mucus and gill samples were collected at the end of the 20-h challenge and from fish held up to 96 h postchallenge. Samples were assayed for detection of F. columnare by quantitative PCR and conventional plate culture method.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In static-bath challenge groups, F. columnare was detected in asymptomatic (38%) and moribund Chinook Salmon (29%). In contrast, F. columnare was detected in only one asymptomatic (4%) and one moribund (4%) Chinook Salmon in the flowing-water challenge groups. Prechallenge temperature conditions had no effect on infection. Other yellow-pigmented bacteria were isolated from the Chinook Salmon (particularly static-bath challenge) but were not associated with morbidity or amplified in the F. columnare quantitative PCR.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Low transmission of F. columnare occurred among juvenile Chinook Salmon under flowing-water conditions simulating a thermal refugia during early summer (20°C, flow of one body length per second, 20-h exposure to 103 CFU/mL). The flowing-water system is sufficient to examine the environmental factors (velocity, temperature, host density, duration, and bacterial concentration of exposure) of riverine exposures on F. columnare transmission to juvenile Chinook Salmon.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"147-153"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144528142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distribution of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus in the nearshore fish community of the St. Lawrence River.","authors":"Anna L Haws, Rodman G Getchell, John M Farrell","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf011","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>We investigated viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus dynamics in wild fish populations of the St. Lawrence River to compare host competency among five abundant native species and the invasive Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus following two decades of host-pathogen coevolution. To examine species' responses to the virus and identify principal hosts as viral reservoir species, we used viral surveillance among Round Gobies, Yellow Perch Perca flavescens, Rock Bass Ambloplites rupestris, Pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus, Bluegill L. macrochirus, and Brown Bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus collected from the nearshore fish community in the upper St. Lawrence River during spring 2020-2021.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR was used to detect and quantify viral nucleoprotein gene genetic material in pooled organ (i.e., liver, kidney, and spleen) and brain tissues of wild fish belonging to several susceptible host species.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR detected viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus genetic material in each species during both sampling years. There was significant variation between species in both infection prevalence and median viral titer. Invasive Round Gobies exhibited significantly higher prevalence and titers compared to any of the native species. However, some native fishes (e.g., Yellow Perch and sunfishes Lepomis spp.) presented higher infection prevalence and viral concentrations compared to the others (e.g., Rock Bass and Brown Bullhead).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Multiple species remain susceptible to viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus under enzootic conditions; however, viral infections are distributed unevenly among host species. Invasive Round Gobies have amplified reservoir competence compared to native fish species.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"136-146"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144992701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Detection and pathological effects of intestinal parasites in Spotted Scat Scatophagus argus: Filisoma spp. and Cryptosporidium spp. as infective agents and their roles in fish inflammatory response.","authors":"Watcharapol Suyapoh, Boonruen Thaweechart, Punnita Wae-Asae, Narissara Keawchana, Peerapon Sornying, Sareepah Manmoo, Pirayu Rakwong, Sasibha Jantrakajorn","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf009","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The Spotted Scat Scatophagus argus, particularly in aquaculture, is commonly affected by intestinal parasitic infections that impact its health and growth. Filisoma spp., an acanthocephalan parasite, and Cryptosporidium spp. cause intestinal inflammation in various marine fish; however, infections with Cryptosporidium spp. or co-infection with these parasites have not been identified in Spotted Scat.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Host-parasite interactions in fish, including the inflammatory responses of the intestine, were investigated in 32 cultured Spotted Scat from Songkhla, Thailand. The study used parasitological examination, including polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing of the ITS1 and ITS2 regions of the ribosomal RNA gene for acanthocephalans and the 18S ribosomal RNA gene for Cryptosporidium. Additionally, histopathology and immunohistochemistry for interleukin-4 expression were performed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Most of the infected fish showed no significant clinical signs, with postmortem findings of hemorrhagic, congested, and edematous intestines. Parasitological analysis revealed that 84.37% of the fish were infected, with 9.37% having a single helminth infection, 40.62% being infected with coccidia, 34.37% having mixed infections with both parasites, and 15.62% of the fish being free from intestinal parasites. Polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing indicated that F. argusum and C. bollandi were the parasites involved. Histopathology showed increased inflammatory cell infiltrations, particularly eosinophilic granule cells and mononuclear cells, as well as higher levels of histopathological changes (vascular congestion, tissue necrosis, and epithelial desquamation) in the single F. argusum infection and co-infection with F. argusum and C. bollandi compared with C. bollandi infection alone. Similarly, significantly elevated interleukin-4 expression in the intestines, indicating a strong proinflammatory immune response, was observed in these groups.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study highlights the detrimental effects of F. argusum, regardless of whether it is a single or concomitant infection, which may impact the health of fish.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"122-135"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144835210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced detection of Argulus and epizootic ulcerative syndrome in fish aquaculture through an improved deep learning model.","authors":"Mahdi Hamzaoui, Mohamed Ould-Elhassen Aoueileyine, Seifeddine Bouallegue, Ridha Bouallegue","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf001","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Fish disease in aquaculture is a major risk to food safety. The identification of infected fish and disease categories present in fish farms remains difficult to determine at an early stage. Detecting infected fish in time is an essential step in preventing the spread of disease. The aim of this work was to detect fish infected with epizootic ulcerative syndrome and fish lice Argulus spp.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>An improved YOLO (You Only Look Once) version 5 (YOLOV5) model was developed. In the context of transfer learning, our improved model used a pretrained model on binary images. The improved model was deployed and integrated into a Raspberry Pi board.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The experimental results showed that it is more effective than a simple YOLOV5 model.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Using the evaluation metrics of precision, recall, mAP50 (mean average precision at an intersection over union threshold of 0.50), and mAP50-95 (average of the mAP values calculated for intersection over union thresholds ranging from 0.50 to 0.95 in steps of 0.05), our new model achieved accuracy rates of 0.944, 0.969, 0.989, and 0.954, respectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"97-109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144637136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Florfenicol- and erythromycin-medicated feeds are similarly efficacious in reducing mortality from Lactococcus petauri infections in Rainbow Trout.","authors":"Taylor I Heckman, Ruth Milston-Clements, Zeinab Yazdi, Alvin C Camus, Kelsey M Anenson, Hugh Mitchell, Mark A Adkison, Esteban Soto","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf008","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Piscine lactococcosis associated with Lactococcus petauri is a serious emerging threat to fish populations in the Americas. This bacterial disease commonly presents as a hemorrhagic septicemia, resulting in high mortality rates and substantial financial losses. There are no commercial vaccines in the United States, and treatment options are limited and understudied. Florfenicol (Aquaflor) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic approved for finfish aquaculture, and erythromycin (Aquamycin 100) is an investigational new animal drug. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of florfenicol- and erythromycin-medicated feed against lactococcosis through cohabitation challenges in Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Shedder fish were intracoelomically injected with L. petauri (∼1.5 × 104 CFU) and introduced to naïve populations at 13°C or 18°C. Treatments were initiated immediately after observation of mortality, with fish receiving florfenicol at 15 mg/kg for 10 d, erythromycin at 100 mg/kg for 21 d, or the control diet.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>At 18°C, cohabitant survival was significantly higher in florfenicol-treated (100%) and erythromycin-treated (93%) tanks compared to untreated positive controls (60%). There were no mortalities at 13°C or in the negative control tanks. In sampled survivors, L. petauri was detected by quantitative PCR in 29% of positive control fish, 14% of erythromycin-treated fish, and 14% of florfenicol-treated fish at 18°C compared to 21, 7, and 0%, respectively, at 13°C. Culturable bacteria were only recovered from 14% of positive control fish at both temperatures.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results indicate that early intervention with florfenicol or erythromycin can limit the spread of L. petauri and that lower water temperatures reduce disease onset, improving options for managing lactococcosis in aquaculture.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"110-121"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144642640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Histopathological effects of heavy metal on bivalves: Review and perspectives.","authors":"Jenny Carolina Rodríguez-Villalobos, Marcial Arellano-Martínez, Bertha Patricia Ceballos-Vázquez","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jahafs/vsaf012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>We sought to establish a current understanding of the histopathology of bivalves following exposure to heavy metal and to standardize the related terminology and microscopic diagnostic techniques, highlight limitations that hinder understanding, and discuss future research perspectives.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a literature review, looking for studies that implemented histopathological analyses to describe the damage that is caused by heavy metal bioaccumulation. For further description, we categorized lesions as regressive, defensive, or progressive.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We analyzed 49 articles that employed histopathological techniques to describe the morphological changes that are associated with heavy metal bioaccumulation in bivalves. Since the 1980s, a growing interest in understanding how heavy metals affect bivalves has been evident, given the increasing number of published articles. Most studies were descriptive, although some contained experimental methods. The descriptive studies described damage to the digestive gland, gonads, gills, and kidneys. Defensive lesions were the most common response in the literature, with inflammation events reported in most cases. Regressive and progressive lesions were also documented, with necrosis (regressive change) and fibrosis (progressive change) being the most commonly reported, although not always correctly identified using microscopy.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Histopathological studies on the effects of heavy metals on bivalve health are abundant, and the resulting morphologic lesions have been described extensively. However, most studies on heavy metal accumulation in bivalves have not followed a microscopic approach, focusing instead on using bivalves solely as sentinel or bioindicator species. A histopathologic evaluation is a common and important facet of pathologic analyses; however, we identified inconsistencies among diagnoses and misleading use of pathological terms. Therefore, we highlight the need to establish a systematic and standardized characterization of lesions at the microscopical level and their subsequent categorization to reduce the ambiguity of pathological descriptions. Implementing other methodological approaches in combination with histopathological analysis will improve our understanding of how heavy metals affect the health of bivalves.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145091739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nonlethal detection of Renibacterium salmoninarum in Greenback Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii stomias comparing mucus, blood, and ovarian fluid samples to kidney tissues.","authors":"Tawni B R Firestone, Eric R Fetherman, Dana L Winkelman","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jahafs/vsaf013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Renibacterium salmoninarum, the causative agent of bacterial kidney disease, poses a major threat to both wild and aquaculture salmonid populations. Traditional detection methods typically involve lethal sampling to collect kidney tissues but are often impractical for species of conservation concern. This study evaluates nonlethal sampling techniques for detecting R. salmoninarum in Greenback Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii stomias by comparing mucus, blood, and ovarian fluid samples to conventional kidney tissue.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>During the 2019 spawning season, we collected samples from 781 adult fish and tested for R. salmoninarum via direct fluorescent antibody test (DFAT) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 25 and 256 kidney tissues were positive by DFAT and qPCR, respectively. Of the three nonlethal samples tested, mucus swabs showed the highest percent correlation for detection with positive kidney tissues (DFAT = 47.6%, qPCR = 41.7%). Blood and ovarian fluid samples showed a lower percent correlation with positive kidney tissues (blood: DFAT = 12.0%, qPCR = 1.2%; ovarian fluid: DFAT = 12.5%, qPCR = 21.4%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that nonlethal mucus swabbing could serve as a practical alternative for monitoring R. salmoninarum, especially in conservation efforts where minimizing fish mortality is critical.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145023359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Psychoactive drug propranolol modulates behavioral, acetylcholinesterase, and oxidative stress parameters in freshwater African Sharptooth Catfish Clarias gariepinus.","authors":"Temitope Dadewura Melefa, Felix Atawal Andong, Funmilayo Faith Hinmikaiye, Edwin Ejike Ozota, Mary-Claret Nwoko, Venatius Chiamaka Steve Ubah, Gladys Ndidiamaka Ugwu, Christopher Didigwu Nwani","doi":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf004","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jahafs/vsaf004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Propranolol is a beta-blocker psychoactive drug used for the management of high blood pressure, tremors, atrial fibrillation, and migraine headaches. This study investigated the effect of propranolol on behavior, acetylcholinesterase, lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase in the brain of African Sharptooth Catfish Clarias gariepinus juveniles.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 180 African Sharptooth Catfish were exposed to 7.00-, 9.00-, 11.00-, 13.00-, and 15.00-mg/L acute propranolol concentrations and a control (0.00 mg/L) for 24, 48, 72, and 96 h, and the 96-h LC50 value was 9.48 mg/L. For sublethal study, 120 juvenile African Sharptooth Catfish were divided into four groups of 30 fish each and exposed to 1.90-, 0.95-, and 0.47-mg/L propranolol concentrations and a control for 21 d and allowed to recover for 7 d. All the treatment groups and control were set in triplicates, with 10 fish in each. The behavioral changes due to propranolol exposure were monitored by direct observation and scoring during the exposure and withdrawal period. The brains of fish were sampled every week for 4 weeks in order to evaluate the effects of propranolol on acetylcholinesterase, lipid peroxidation, and oxidative stress parameters.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Behavioral changes were evidenced by alterations in swimming rates, air gulping activities, and opercula beats in the propranolol-exposed fish during the acute exposure. Sublethal exposure resulted in a significant decrease in superoxide dismutase and catalase but increase in glutathione peroxidase and reductase values. Significant increase in lipid peroxidation and acetylcholinesterase enzyme levels were observed as exposure duration increased from day 7 compared with the control. The effects of propranolol on the observed parameters appeared to wane after fish withdrawal from the drug for 7 d.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The drug propranolol, as demonstrated by these alterations, may negatively impact nontarget aquatic species and may have ecological consequences.</p>","PeriodicalId":15235,"journal":{"name":"Journal of aquatic animal health","volume":" ","pages":"66-74"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143993179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}